tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22382765344107588372024-02-10T23:21:40.898-08:00Multiple Sclerosis--the vascular connectionFrom Rindfliesch's discovery of the central vessel in the MS lesion in 1863, to CCSVI and the CNS lymphatic discovery. 160 years of research on blood flow, CSF, lymph and perfusion of the central nervous system.
Because the heart and the brain are connected.Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.comBlogger246125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-57758249393006194562022-11-02T14:19:00.000-07:002023-11-21T04:54:58.320-08:00Vascular endothelial dysfunction associated with severity in MS<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />I wanted to provide a recent research round-up on the connection of MS to vascular health, specifically how endothelial dysfunction contributes to MS progression. <p></p><p>As I've explained in another blog post, I do not feel it is appropriate for me to be dispensing medical advice as a layperson. But I am still interested in seeing the exploration of the vascular connection to MS, and happy to share that the research continues. </p><p>Jeff is now 15 years out from his MS diagnosis, and has shown no further MS disease progression. His most recent MRI from last June shows continued healing of old lesions and completely healthy, normal gray matter. And he's still composing, conducting, traveling, teaching, biking, jogging, living. As his new GP recently commented, he's an incredibly healthy 59 year old man. The fact that he has had MS for 15 years astonishes her. Me too.</p><p>Here's a short research wrap up:</p><p>1. A group of Japanese neurologists examined the level of endothelial dysfunction exhibited by people with MS and found a correlation between lower flow mediated dilation (FMD), endothelial dysfunction, <span style="font-family: inherit;">and MS progression. FMD is lowered when we do not have enough endogenous nitric oxide.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050;">Twenty-seven patients with MS and 24 healthy controls were enrolled. FMD was significantly lower in MS subjects than in control subjects (6.0 ± 0.6 </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050;">vs</em><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050;">. 8.6 ± 0.7, </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050;">p =</em><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050;"> 0.006); furthermore, BHI was similarly lower in MS than in controls, but insignificant. Remarkably, FMD was significantly lower in secondary progressive MS subjects than in relapse-remitting MS subjects (3.7 ± 1.3 </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050;">vs</em><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050;">. 6.7 ± 0.7, </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050;">p</em><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050;"> = 0.045). In addition, FMD was inversely correlated with the disability score as per the expanded disability status scale (R</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">2</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050;"> = 0.170, </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050;">p</em><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050;"> = 0.033) and modified Rankin scale (R</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">2</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050;"> = 0.187, </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050;">p</em><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(80, 80, 80); color: #505050;"> = 0.027).</span></span></p><p><a href="https://www.msard-journal.com/article/S2211-0348(21)00402-8/fulltext#%20">https://www.msard-journal.com/article/S2211-0348(21)00402-8/fulltext#%20</a></p><p>2. Russian neurologists are looking at how homocysteine decreases endothelial health, and contributes to MS progression. </p><p>The effect of homocysteine on endothelial dysfunction was shown in vitro. It was reported that homocysteine (500 µM) decreases the viability and induces the apoptosis of human vascular endothelial cells. Increases in reactive oxygen species in endothelial cells treated with homocysteine were also found [70]. Increasing concentrations of reactive oxygen species in endothelial cells homocysteine may induce vascular inflammation [19,28]. </p><p><a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/10/9/637/htm">https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/10/9/637/htm</a></p><p>I first wrote about the danger of elevated homocysteine levels as part of the <b>Endothelial Health Program</b></p><p><span style="color: #323333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;">Anemia/low vit. B12 creates high levels of homocysteine in the blood (a sulfur containing amino acid) which damages the endothelium A strict vegetarian diet that excludes all meat, fish, dairy and eggs, or an </span><span style="color: #323333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;">unbalanced diet of processed foods could create low vit. B12 levels and damage the endothelium (10)</span></p><p><a href="https://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-endothelial-health-program-8-years.html">https://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-endothelial-health-program-8-years.html</a></p><p>3. Our friends from the ISNVD, Dr. Mark Haacke and Dr. Yulin Ge, continue to look at the MS brain, to study the vasculature. This group is noting a new venous vascular sign in lesions, which they are calling multiple vessel sign (MVS). Using a new contrast agent called Ferumoxytol, the researchers were able to see enhanced images of MS lesions, and noticedmany more small vessel abnormalities. Rindfleisch's discovery of the dilated blood vessel, the central vein sign, continues to be explored.</p><p><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(33, 33, 33); color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> The total number of lesions with vascularity on pre- and post-contrast data were 287 and 488, respectively. The lesions with abnormal vascular behavior were broken up into following categories: small lesions appearing only at the vessel boundary; dilated vessels within the lesions; and developmental venous angiomas. These vessel abnormalities observed within lesions increased from 55 on pre-contrast data to 153 on post-contrast data. Finally, across all the patients, the periventricular lesional vessel density was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than that of the periventricular NAWM.</span></span></p><p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33338965/">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33338965/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>4. And finally, here is a fabulously thorough review from the ISNVD 2020 meeting, published in 2021. This paper can serve as a primer for any medical researcher interested in learning more about the vascular connection to MS. It's all here. </p><p><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2021.561458/full">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2021.561458/full</a></p><p><br /></p><p>stay well,</p><p>Joan</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEglIwi33a_RD277oi2b5fDyHQiCMUaSjlxR_jb2LCtsM6oKiSUcygNb5f6x6OpvMFeDtROeJOvMM05ymVbCYQ5vv-injmEo-UBENTUIQBl49TYjrPKFMPjTwNXC528InukA2LOofq22u2ETVegF1sG9zA_f3hXeOECwO9MJjd_z9PB32L8z4dMzu3sD2w" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="2186" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEglIwi33a_RD277oi2b5fDyHQiCMUaSjlxR_jb2LCtsM6oKiSUcygNb5f6x6OpvMFeDtROeJOvMM05ymVbCYQ5vv-injmEo-UBENTUIQBl49TYjrPKFMPjTwNXC528InukA2LOofq22u2ETVegF1sG9zA_f3hXeOECwO9MJjd_z9PB32L8z4dMzu3sD2w=w643-h201" width="643" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div><span style="color: #323333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div>Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-18470552495729525062022-08-02T06:46:00.008-07:002022-08-02T09:27:03.771-07:00Fabricated Alzheimer's research scandal Two weeks ago, a scandal blew up the world of Alzheimer's disease research. <div><br /><div>Thanks to an investigative report at Science, it was revealed that slides of beta amyloid plaques attached to a 2006 research paper were enhanced and research fabricated, affecting a decade's worth of research and failed drug development, and undue agony for Alzheimer's patients and families. I suggest reading this report, for all of the gory details. </div><div><a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/potential-fabrication-research-images-threatens-key-theory-alzheimers-disease">https://www.science.org/content/article/potential-fabrication-research-images-threatens-key-theory-alzheimers-disease</a><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibX2sFOz8AGvBFxNkXEe0OYeZL7MbaG_5offUmOQ2dqjalvLeCajc6Qj7qcuoS_bAGdS3EOq6l8azgCiw942sqGmocTIAP7tNoLhtyA0amaQ0WW9NtAut0ZA5zau59VP0ZOc2FlgbysruvpcdC_PYxU_OxXjbHhrTPrOoIkP-zdqLZIvIH6GULTpXDEQ/s2544/Screen%20Shot%202022-08-02%20at%209.35.13%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1038" data-original-width="2544" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibX2sFOz8AGvBFxNkXEe0OYeZL7MbaG_5offUmOQ2dqjalvLeCajc6Qj7qcuoS_bAGdS3EOq6l8azgCiw942sqGmocTIAP7tNoLhtyA0amaQ0WW9NtAut0ZA5zau59VP0ZOc2FlgbysruvpcdC_PYxU_OxXjbHhrTPrOoIkP-zdqLZIvIH6GULTpXDEQ/s320/Screen%20Shot%202022-08-02%20at%209.35.13%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><div>How could this happen? Was it simply the pressures of academia to publish or perish? Or pressures from pharmaceutical companies who fund research to find a profitable drug solution? Could it be a myopic understanding of specific protein build up in the brain, without consideration of the underlying processes behind inflammation, slowed cerebral perfusion and drainage? Was it due to the credo of neuroimmunologists which focuses on the trees, rather than the forest? I would posit it is all of the above.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>Readers of this blog know that I have written about the importance of understanding a <b>systems approach </b>to healing in diseases of neurodegeneration, including MS. But a systems approach will never be one drug, pill, or infusion. A systems approach can never be placebo trialled. It will never make money for researchers of big pharma, so they won't fund studies. And this is a problem.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2014, I talked to ISNVD keynote speaker Dr. Paula Grammas regarding her Alzheimer's Disease research, which was focused on the multi-factorial causes of Alzheimer's related to vascular inflammation. </div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIaPgxOC_4o">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIaPgxOC_4o</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Below, I'll copy and paste a 2014 post on this topic, including the groundbreaking Alzheimer's research of Dr. Dale Bredesen. Dr. Bredesen had been concerned that a billion dollars of Alzheimer's research money was going to understanding beta amyloid plaques as a target for drug development. Turns out, he had a lot of reason for his concern. </div><div><a href="https://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2014/10/systems-approach-to-healing-alzheimers.html"> https://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2014/10/systems-approach-to-healing-alzheimers.html</a></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: inherit;">Published in the September issue of Aging, <b>"Reversal of cognitive decline: A novel therapeutic program"</b>, a </span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">new study at UCLA shows exactly how a personalized "Systems Approach" helped Alzheimer's patients recover memory and health.</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: inherit;">Dr. Dale Bredesen, Professor of Neurology at UCLA, authored the new paper. Dr. Bredesen is one of many researchers who has questioned the pharmaceutical model of inhibiting beta amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's. </span><br style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"></span><br style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 15px; padding: 5px 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>In the case of Alzheimer's disease, Bredesen notes, there is not one drug that has been developed that stops or even slows the disease's progression, and drugs have only had modest effects on symptoms. <b>"In the past decade alone, hundreds of clinical trials have been conducted for Alzheimer's at an aggregate cost of over a billion dollars, without success," he said.</b></i></span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 15px; padding: 5px 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The model of multiple targets and an imbalance in signaling runs contrary to the popular dogmathat Alzheimer's is a disease of toxicity, caused by the accumulation of sticky plaques in the brain. Bredesen believes the amyloid beta peptide, the source of the plaques, has a normal function in the brain -- as part of a larger set of molecules that promotes signals that cause nerve connections to lapse. Thus the increase in the peptide that occurs in Alzheimer's disease shifts the memory-making vs. memory-breaking balance in favor of memory loss.</i></span></span><br style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"></span><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140930143446.htm?utm_source=feedburner" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140930143446.htm?utm_source=feedburner</a><br style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 15px; padding: 5px 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 15px; padding: 5px 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dr. Bredesen believed that using a multiple target lifestyle therapy with his Alzheimer's patients might improve brain signaling. Here are the main features of the program he created, which was adjusted for each individual patient.</span></div><b><br style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">(1) eliminating all simple carbohydrates (breads, pastas, baked goods)</span></b></div><div><b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">(2) eliminating gluten and processed food, with increased vegetables, fruits, and non-farmed fish</span></b></div><div><b><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">(3) reducing stress with yoga</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">(4) as a second measure to reduce the stress, meditation for 20 minutes twice per day</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">(5) melatonin each night</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">(6) increasing sleep from 4-5 hours per night to 7-8 hours per night</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">(7) methylcobalamin (vitamin B12)</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">(8) vitamin D3</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;" /></b><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><b>(9) omega 3 fish oil<br />(10) CoQ10 <br />(11) Exercising for a minimum of 30 minutes, 4-6 days per week.</b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">(Long time readers of this blog will notice that this program shares a lot with the Endothelial Health Program)</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://ccsvi.org/index.php/helping-myself/endothelial-health" style="text-decoration: none;">http://ccsvi.org/index.php/helping-myself/endothelial-health</a><br /><br /><b>The results for 9 patients was better overall health, better body mass index, and a reversal of memory loss. That's Alzheimer's Disease reversal! Something no one drug has been able to achieve.</b><br /><b><br /></b><span style="font-family: inherit;">I've written about the difficulty in conducting double-blind, placebo control trials for lifestyle. As Dr. Roy Swank, Dr. George Jelinek and Dr. Terry Wahls could all attest, the "gold standard" trial approach works best for drugs. But that doesn't mean a holistic approach to healing is invalid, or cannot be trialled. It just means it takes more work for both patient and researcher. </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is no way to patent or monetize a new lifestyle, so drug companies won't be paying for these studies. However, a <b>holistic approach addresses many different aspects of health.</b></span></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">Yes, this is a small study, and yes, it is still anecdotal evidence. But this program can be used in clinical trials. It will be costly, and take time---but it may save brains.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br />What does this Alzheimer's research have to do with MS? When we consider the link of the heart to the brain and the importance of cardiovascular health to cerebral perfusion, we can understand the need for endothelial health. An oxygenated, perfused, cleansed and fed brain is a happy and healthy brain.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">All diseases of neurodegeneration share hypoperfusion, or simply, reduced cerebral blood flow. </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><a href="http://ccsvi.org/index.php/the-basics/ccsvi-in-other-neurological-diseases" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">http://ccsvi.org/index.php/the-basics/ccsvi-in-other-neurological-diseases</span></a></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">There are lifestyle changes that can be made to aid healing. Please note that I did not use the word "cure." For more on how the "cure mentality" can hamper our efforts to heal--read </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><a href="http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-cure-mentality.html" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-cure-mentality.html </span></a></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">The era of a "brain in isolation" research is ending. More and more researchers, like Dr. Bredesen, are considering the body as a whole unit, and addressing cardiovascular function in brain health.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">Thanks to Dr. Bredesen and UCLA for going up against the pharmaceutical companies, and bringing hope and healing to his Alzheimer's patients. <br /><br />Where are the MS specialists ready to take on this challenge?</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">We're waiting,</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">Joan</div></div></div></div>Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-72294538166115175122022-07-05T06:42:00.002-07:002022-07-05T10:28:00.690-07:00Guardians of the Brain<p>A recent paper in Nature explains how the brain's newly discovered immune system protects our gray matter. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01502-8">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01502-8</a></p><p>For those who have followed this blog over the past 15 years, you might remember my posts on the ground breaking work of Dr. Michal Schwartz. It is thanks to her pushing back against the status quo and the work of her student, Dr. Jony Kipnis, that we now understand the importance of immune cells in the brain. Neuroimmunology is a growing field, and has changed all we thought we knew about the central nervous system.</p><p>In 2002, Dr. Schwartz published a new paradigm for MS treatment with her then-student, Dr. Jony Kipnis. They were concerned that MS treatments which suppressed or ablated the brain's immune cells would eventually be harmful to the brain. Even though inflammation might be tamped down in the short term, the brain would atrophy, or lose volume, without its protective immune system. She suggested modulating immune cells, and boosting the brain's immune response, rather than getting rid of it, which made sense to me. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12374425/">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12374425/</a></p><p>Jeff recently had a new MRI. It's been 15 years since his MS diagnosis, and we are thankful to report that his gray matter is "normal and healthy" with no loss. He has no new white matter lesions and he's still biking, hiking, jogging and working. We are very thankful for his mild course in this disease, and thankful he was treated for stenotic jugular veins and dural sinus. He was fortunate to be able to stay active and adapt a new lifestyle. </p><p>I no longer share my opinions or advice on MS treatments on the internet, as I felt it was not my place as a lay person to give medical advice. But I will continue to share the science. </p><p>Please follow the ISNVD for further publications and research on the vascular connection to diseases of neurodegeneration. <a href="https://isnvd.org"> https://isnvd.org</a></p><p>As the venous dural sinus in the place where the brain's immune system connects to the vasculature, neuroimmunologists will be exploring this further. </p><p><br /></p><p>stay well! </p><p>Joan</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXylE-pxziqyk5PHbouGaUiPhAcbt4YSDvPW3NQAm29Yd-Di3SP3YdouPyYNIZNsRR_m3Q3fcrleAzImssghUOCtwRWi0RTEeRyRcy-fsH4JFIVAmlnwVr0s4F9Wyt6CZMXU1tatGnqoxuLYNWtrT2Fq_wbzdfvgu_g-AW0hWTk9zMQl2eUDLIsBNrw/s1494/Screen%20Shot%202022-07-05%20at%209.11.20%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1112" data-original-width="1494" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXylE-pxziqyk5PHbouGaUiPhAcbt4YSDvPW3NQAm29Yd-Di3SP3YdouPyYNIZNsRR_m3Q3fcrleAzImssghUOCtwRWi0RTEeRyRcy-fsH4JFIVAmlnwVr0s4F9Wyt6CZMXU1tatGnqoxuLYNWtrT2Fq_wbzdfvgu_g-AW0hWTk9zMQl2eUDLIsBNrw/w640-h476/Screen%20Shot%202022-07-05%20at%209.11.20%20AM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-14044416470183434462022-01-23T08:47:00.001-08:002022-01-23T08:49:07.308-08:00Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) and MS<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The association of the Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) and multiple sclerosis is one that has evolved over of decades of research. 95% of all humans carry the dormant or "latent" EBV virus. But in people with MS, there is an activation of the virus, which is seen in tissue of autopsied brains. </span></p><p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2118531/">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2118531/<span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></a></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I wrote about this connection exactly 10 years ago. <a href="https://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2012/01/hypoxia-reactivates-latent-ebv-january.html"> https://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2012/01/hypoxia-reactivates-latent-ebv-january.html</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">EBV is in the news a decade later, because researchers at Harvard have a new study published in Science <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abj8222">https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abj8222</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Their conjecture is that if people are never infected with EBV, they will never develop MS. Well, that would be wonderful! Incredible. An end to MS. An EBV vaccine will be developed, and it may well help future generations. But what about the people alive today on the planet, the 95% of us who are already infected with EBV? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Back in 2011, researchers at Buffalo Neuroimmaging Analysis Center published a paper in Expert Reviews on how venous stasis (or impeded blood flow out of the brain) might be responsible for a reactivation of EBV. This paper no longer exists online, which is heart-breaking to me. The only place I found links to this hypothesis was in my writing. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But I would like to suggest that this be further explored. </span></p><div style="color: #323333;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><i>The association between EBV infection and CCSVI has not yet been explored; however, it could be hypothesized that venous stasis in the superior saggital sinus due to extracranial outflow impairment could affect the drainage of bridging veins that pass through the subarachnoid space (near the meninges and EBV-infected B-cell follicles) and contribute to EBV activation.</i><b><i> The venous stasis hypothesis in the SSS may contribute to understanding why so many different viruses and bacteria [3,111] have been linked to increased MS susceptibility risk over the last 50 years.</i></b></span></span></div><div style="color: #323333;"><a href="http://www.expert-reviews.com/doi/abs/10.1586/ern.11.117" style="color: #7d171d; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">http://www.expert-reviews.com/doi/abs/10.1586/ern.11.117</span></a></div><div style="color: #323333;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #323333;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I have stopped following MS research and writing about it for many reasons. Jeff continues to do quite well, and I am not the person to be giving out medical advice. </span></div><div style="color: #323333;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #323333;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Follow the ISNVD. Listen to experts. Take care of yourselves. </span></div><div style="color: #323333;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Be well,</span></div><div style="color: #323333;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Joan </span></div><div style="color: #323333;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #323333;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxUrFitKuLjl5Mzb_BeyQ8L_zFbDR279ZinKql-8DnkhQlKUJc6PqH8qmv_UydCqyEfwcwoybZuOgJXDjKwXr-aFEAuZq82y1ik28fuVTbwrsrwapPNSfuy8fxV41K4eFMekp723nwv3qanoDVOLcAv7CHeqU1OY-FjtY_bM9jRZpVYqbcLaDwys4PnA=s275" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxUrFitKuLjl5Mzb_BeyQ8L_zFbDR279ZinKql-8DnkhQlKUJc6PqH8qmv_UydCqyEfwcwoybZuOgJXDjKwXr-aFEAuZq82y1ik28fuVTbwrsrwapPNSfuy8fxV41K4eFMekp723nwv3qanoDVOLcAv7CHeqU1OY-FjtY_bM9jRZpVYqbcLaDwys4PnA=w422-h281" width="422" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /></span></div><div style="color: #323333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><br /></div><div style="color: #323333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";"><br /></div><div style="color: #323333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px;"><br /></div>Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-85605320229264702022020-09-10T11:21:00.003-07:002020-09-10T11:28:22.033-07:00MAGNIMS consensus recommendation: Measure brain and spinal atrophy in MS<p>Readers of this blog have already learned about the importance of monitoring their gray matter. Volume loss, or the shrinking of tissue, is also referred to as atrophy and neurodegeneration. I explain this process in more depth here: <a href="https://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2016/01/thalamic-atrophy-and-ms-progression.html" target="_blank">link</a> The MRI measurement of atrophy has been proven to be more indicative of MS progression, when compared to white matter lesions. (The fact that we still use a seventy year old mouse model to measure white matter lesions for MS drug efficacy boggles the mind.) This paper advises that MS specialists look at other MRI markers to understand how treatments might be impacting loss of tissue and MS progression.</p><p>A consortium of international MS experts published this review earlier in the year, right before COVID, and I missed it. It was not sponsored by any specific drug company. The MAGNIMS study group (Magnetic Resonance in Imaging in MS) was comprised of MS experts from seven countries. I highly recommend discussing this research with your doctor, to make sure you understand how your own gray matter is doing. </p><p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-020-0314-x " target="_blank">link to MAGNIMS study in Nature</a></p><p>The authors discuss lifestyle factors which impact brain volume. I like to call these factors "the things we can change." There are things we can do today to maintain our gray matter. The heart brain connection is real, and vascular health impacts our brains.</p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;">Many lifestyle factors, including physical activity</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a aria-label="Reference 124" data-test="citation-ref" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-track="click" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-020-0314-x#ref-CR124" id="ref-link-section-d83462e2456" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; text-decoration-skip: objects; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;" title="Klaren, R. E. et al. Objectively measured physical activity is associated with brain volumetric measurements in multiple sclerosis. Behav. Neurol. 2015, 482536 (2015).">124</a></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;">, influence estimates of brain volume. A higher level of alcohol intake has been associated with a higher rate of brain atrophy over a 6-year period</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a aria-label="Reference 115" data-test="citation-ref" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-track="click" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-020-0314-x#ref-CR115" id="ref-link-section-d83462e2460" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; text-decoration-skip: objects; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;" title="Enzinger, C. et al. Risk factors for progression of brain atrophy in aging: six-year follow-up of normal subjects. Neurology 64, 1704–1711 (2005).">115</a></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;"> and with a specific pattern of regional involvement of the white matter and grey matter</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a aria-label="Reference 125" data-test="citation-ref" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-track="click" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-020-0314-x#ref-CR125" id="ref-link-section-d83462e2464" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; text-decoration-skip: objects; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;" title="Mechtcheriakov, S. et al. A widespread distinct pattern of cerebral atrophy in patients with alcohol addiction revealed by voxel-based morphometry. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 78, 610–614 (2007).">125</a></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;">. A similar effect has been described for cigarette smoking and substance abuse (for example, marijuana use)</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a aria-label="Reference 115" data-test="citation-ref" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-track="click" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-020-0314-x#ref-CR115" id="ref-link-section-d83462e2468" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; text-decoration-skip: objects; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;" title="Enzinger, C. et al. Risk factors for progression of brain atrophy in aging: six-year follow-up of normal subjects. Neurology 64, 1704–1711 (2005).">115</a>,<a aria-label="Reference 126" data-test="citation-ref" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-track="click" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-020-0314-x#ref-CR126" id="ref-link-section-d83462e2471" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; text-decoration-skip: objects; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;" title="Mashhoon, Y., Sava, S., Sneider, J. T., Nickerson, L. D. & Silveri, M. M. Cortical thinness and volume differences associated with marijuana abuse in emerging adults. Drug Alcohol Depend. 155, 275–283 (2015).">126</a></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;">. Many systemic conditions, such as diabetes, chronic kidney disease, hypertension, obesity and vascular conditions can also accelerate brain atrophy</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a aria-label="Reference 115" data-test="citation-ref" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-track="click" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-020-0314-x#ref-CR115" id="ref-link-section-d83462e2475" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; text-decoration-skip: objects; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;" title="Enzinger, C. et al. Risk factors for progression of brain atrophy in aging: six-year follow-up of normal subjects. Neurology 64, 1704–1711 (2005).">115</a>,<a aria-label="Reference 127" data-test="citation-ref" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-track="click" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-020-0314-x#ref-CR127" id="ref-link-section-d83462e2478" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; text-decoration-skip: objects; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;" title="Beauchet, O. et al. Blood pressure levels and brain volume reduction: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J. Hypertens. 31, 1502–1516 (2013).">127</a>,<a aria-label="Reference 128" data-test="citation-ref" data-track-action="reference anchor" data-track-label="link" data-track="click" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-020-0314-x#ref-CR128" id="ref-link-section-d83462e2481" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #006699; text-decoration-skip: objects; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;" title="Hooshmand, B. et al. Association of vitamin B12, folate, and sulfur amino acids with brain magnetic resonance imaging measures in older adults: a longitudinal population-based study. JAMA Psychiatry 73, 606–613 (2016).">128</a></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;">.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">Please notice the mention of vascular conditions. All of this is new.</span></p><p>I've written about how Jeff's gray matter atrophy was reversed thanks to vascular and lifestyle intervention. This post is from 2018 <a href="https://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2015/09/celebration.html" target="_blank">Celebration! </a> Jeff's good health continues in 2020, and he is still hiking, biking, composing, and active. He's also down to his high school track star weight (178!) and has built up muscle tone. He remains my inspiration. Our goal, God willing, is to stay healthy and active, and live to see the end of this pandemic. We work on managing the things we can change--by eating whole foods, moving every day, getting sunshine, staying connected to family, praying, meditating, making music, laughing, helping others, and letting go of the factors beyond our control. I've mentioned the serenity prayer before. <a href="https://www.beliefnet.com/prayers/protestant/addiction/serenity-prayer.aspx" target="_blank">link</a> Written in the trying 1930s by Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologian, it is a reminder to take each day at a time, especially as we face difficult times. </p><p>Here is to getting through this- with renewed health-- physically, emotionally, spiritually.</p><p>with love from smokey California,</p><p>Joan</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6IzE9BZC7TX0FRHkx9t_V8HosED1_BqJlREMvW21XIqIpDbxSZD7E0NinmtdCoZav5d_KHp0_C9ttkz3-h9effLwMPRMcwfXjQUMk3iZVNH_1BQyXD66JaILL4k5bnVyrmfeGG374Ns95/s2896/191203_Dr_Nicos_Evangelou_banner.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1086" data-original-width="2896" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6IzE9BZC7TX0FRHkx9t_V8HosED1_BqJlREMvW21XIqIpDbxSZD7E0NinmtdCoZav5d_KHp0_C9ttkz3-h9effLwMPRMcwfXjQUMk3iZVNH_1BQyXD66JaILL4k5bnVyrmfeGG374Ns95/w781-h294/191203_Dr_Nicos_Evangelou_banner.jpg" width="781" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-70846809007174127972020-08-06T12:08:00.007-07:002022-01-19T06:38:48.305-08:00Living in a post truth worldHello dear readers,<div><br /></div><div>I hope that you and your families and friends are surviving this most challenging time. Please let me know how you are faring in the comments. I've thought about our group members many times, praying that you've been able to stay sane and somewhat healthy, safe at home.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jeff and I remain well. We continue to follow The Endothelial Health Program, more rigorously than ever. Exercise, sleep, sunshine, lots of fruits and veg, time in nature, laughter, meditation and music are helping us stay healthy and sane. We are in touch with our family via Facetime and phone calls. Work, meetings, and social interactions now happen on Zoom. We get outside every day for exercise, recreation or yard work, while maintaining social distancing and mask wearing in public. We have several family members who have lost their jobs. I retired and took my studio singing pension early at 58. Thankfully, Jeff continues to compose and has several projects in the works. You can hear his beautiful music on the new Netflix documentary <i>Athlete A. </i></div><div><br /></div><div>We realize how fortunate we are not to have to work outside our home to make a living. We are deeply aware that this has been an extrememly difficult time for all, most especially our front line workers, service workers, hourly wage earners, as well as our underserved minority communities, and those with underlying chronic illness and disabilities.</div><div><br /></div><div>This kind of unrelenting stress and anxiety is hard on people with MS. So is not able to see your doctors or physical therapists, get massages, treatments, or visit with friends. It's hard not to go to a religious group gathering, a family event like a wedding, or simply go outside for a change of scenery. All of these situations are impactful, and can affect your health. In the midst of this, I hope you are able to find activities that bring you a bit of sunshine and joy. I've seen many MS friends taking joy in gardening, listening to music, enjoying family, and being in nature.</div><div><br /></div><div>Over the years, you all know I've handed out a lot of unsolicited advice. I've tried to back up the medical advice with peer-reviewed and published science, not just anecdotal stories. That's why I always include links to medical journals in my posts. I've joked about being your bossy Mom, and telling you how to eat or stay active. But this time of forced stillness has given me the opportunity to ask myself WHY I have felt it so important to share all that we learned to help Jeff heal. </div><div><br /></div><div>So much of what we click, hear and read today is about identity and narrative. There are thousands of falsehoods, conspiracy stories, invented tales, all created to mislead society. I've been horrified to see what people are being persuaded to believe, especially in regards to this current pandemic. Experts, researchers and scientists who have trained and have insight are being discounted for heresay, anecdotal evidence, and downright dangerous advice. This has happened throughout human history, when experts and intellectuals have been portrayed as "the elite," in order to sow discord in society. A rise in populism around the world has put us in a very dangerous situation, where the average citizen no longer believes in scientific evidence. Whether flat earthers, QAnon, anti-maskers, climate deniers; all deny scientific evidence in favor of a belief system that makes sense with a chosen story.</div><div><br /></div><div>Believe me, I get the irony. Jeff's healing experience has been thrown in the heap of anecdotal evidence and heresay. The entire CCSVI investigation has been portrayed as quackery, and the vascular connection to MS and benefit of lifestyle intervention is still downplayed, even though the research began in medical journals and continues to be published. But I contend that our understanding of lifestyle and vascular intervention in the healing process of MS continues to build evidence, and is based on the earliest scientific discovery of the central vein sign, discovered by Rindfleisch in 1863, and still seen today a a reliable biomarker in MS. Inflammation in MS occurs around cerebral veins. That's the truth. We still do not know why. <a href="https://ejrnm.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s43055-020-00185-3">https://ejrnm.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s43055-020-00185-3</a></div><div><br /></div><div>So, who am I to even comment on any of this? I'm surely not an expert, I have no medical degree or training. I should have shut my trap years ago, not gone up against MS specialists or challenged my husband's neurologist. I certainly should not have written or shared anything online. I have participated in the exact same narrative creation and populist rhetoric I find so abhorrent today. I have spun a tale, and sowed confusion. I am exactly part of the problem. Ironic, huh?</div><div><br /></div><div>I would suggest readers follow the ongoing work of the International Society of Neurovascular Disease, for continued research into the heart/brain connection. These researchers are continuing to advance the science behind CCSVI, vascular contributions to dementia, and the impact of lifestyle on the heart brain axis in all diseases of neurodegeneration, including MS. <a href="https://isnvd.org"> https://isnvd.org</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Also keep your eyes on the work being done at UCSF at The Gladstone Lab. Researchers there are honing in on toxic blood particles found in the MS brain, and linking the clotting protein fibrinogen to inflammation and decreased myelin repair. <a href="https://gladstone.org/news/overcoming-obstacles-promote-repair-multiple-sclerosis"> </a></div><div><a href="https://gladstone.org/news/overcoming-obstacles-promote-repair-multiple-sclerosis">https://gladstone.org/news/overcoming-obstacles-promote-repair-multiple-sclerosis</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Do we get to pick and choose our truth? Or is there an ultimate reality, beyond our personal narratives? Our dear friend, theoretical scientist Brian Greene, has a brilliant new book <i>Until the End of Time,</i> in which he attempts to explain the emergence on life on earth. Simple, right? Brian's own life work helps me put things in perspective. Evolution and entropy are tensions bound by gravity. Gravity is the real, measurable force which binds us all--stars and humans alike. There is mathmatical truth in gravity. As Brian states, "Life is physics, orchestrated." Listen to Brian explain it, better than I ever could. </div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXfMN3mZa0Y"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXfMN3mZa0Y </a></div><div><br /></div><div>But even in this truth, Brian admits we still do not have scientific proof as to WHY humans are conscious beings. I have a theory on this, as a religious person who believes in a creator God, but I don't have an equation.</div><div><br /></div><div>I would submit that even in this unknowing, there is still a core of scientific fact. I cannot chose to ignore the rules of gravity, even though I might not like them, or don't completely understand them. There are so many brilliant people like Brian, experts and reseachers, who will spend their lives exploring topics we can never understand. These exceptional minds are working on COVID19 today. Do we ignore them, simply because they work in difficult concepts? I may not know the mathematical formulae which prove gravitational force, but I still live in a world governed by gravity. I may not like the fact that I have to wear a mask or distance myself right now, but I trust the trained epidemiologists exploring the corona virus. </div><div><br /></div><div>Listen to the experts. Believe the smart people. Think critically. Question when individuals spout out theories formed "in my gut," as opposed to in a lab. When we get on an airplane, we all want the most experienced captain in the cockpit, not the most charismatic one. We want our surgeon to be the one who's the most well-trained, not the one who entertains us. </div><div><br /></div><div>Most importantly, don't listen to me. Find your own team of doctors and specialists who you trust, who can take care of you, who will tailor your lifestyle program to suit your needs. That's the truth.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's hoping we all get through this,</div><div>Joan </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9dlU4xu6fHUlWoP6adHQ5NTWbTBtc35b1fkbkjZ1dLwRpRLtMW3YKrlDafgTVjvACwDoyw63OHNJrITrDP5eWMCqlSONa8Vr5tQvtzc0vAYE9P9f7xevYfGqZ-TwM9ntsdm7fXRcUCs5I/s275/images.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9dlU4xu6fHUlWoP6adHQ5NTWbTBtc35b1fkbkjZ1dLwRpRLtMW3YKrlDafgTVjvACwDoyw63OHNJrITrDP5eWMCqlSONa8Vr5tQvtzc0vAYE9P9f7xevYfGqZ-TwM9ntsdm7fXRcUCs5I/w841-h560/images.jpeg" width="841" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-80216548669896664362020-04-07T11:46:00.002-07:002020-04-07T15:11:29.990-07:00COVID-19, nitric oxide (NO) and your endothelium<div class="_5pbx userContent _3576" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-testid="post_message" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 6px;">
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You will be seeing more in the press on nitric oxide (NO), the 2 atom gas which is being trialled to treat patients in COVID-19. Those who have read my blog for the last decade will know all about NO. Healthy levels are the hallmark of a healthy endothelium.<br />
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Nitric Oxide (NO) is shown to kill the corona virus, as it engulfs invading viral particles in the human body. This was demonstrated in the SARS outbreak. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15650225/" style="font-family: inherit;">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15650225/</a><br />
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These new science stories will not be addressing the fact that we make our own NO in our bodies every single day, and that NO is the marker of endothelial health. <b>Instead, they will write about viagra. </b> Clickbait? Perhaps.<br />
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Healthy levels of NO mean healthier erections.<br />
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1502381/">link to published science "The Penis as a Barometer of Endothelial Health"</a><br />
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This is why you'll see viagra trialled to help COVID-19 patients. It boosts nitric oxide levels (which boosts bloodflow to the penis as well as other parts of the body) I know....I haven't written that before, because, well....TMI? But we're well beyond that now...<br />
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Here is a good summation of how nitric oxide (NO) is being trialled to treat COVID-19, from the LA Times <a href="https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-04-05/viagra-discovery-could-treat-coronavirus-patients">link</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pre-existing endothelial dysfunction <i>might</i> be the reason older people, those with cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or autoimmune disease are more susceptible to COVID-19 virus replication, organ failure and cellular death. They do not have a robust population of immune cells, specifically T helper cells. Their endothelial cellular lining has broken down, and they have endothelial dysfunction. This also means they have less available nitric oxide in their bodies.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.journalofinfection.com/article/S0163-4453(20)30110-9/fulltext">link</a></span></div>
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The FDA has granted permission to use inhaled nitric oxide (NO) as a treatment for those with COVID-19. Here is a Newsweek article, published today:<br />
<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/what-nitric-oxide-how-gas-that-gave-us-viagra-could-help-treat-coronavirus-patients-1496520">https://www.newsweek.com/what-nitric-oxide-how-gas-that-gave-us-viagra-could-help-treat-coronavirus-patients-1496520</a></div>
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But these treatments will not be available to us just yet, a<span style="font-family: inherit;">nd they are being trialled on patients who have already contracted COVID-19. </span></div>
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The good news: <b>You can heal and strengthen your own endothelial cells and increase nitric oxide availability. At home. Today. </b>You don't even need a little blue pill :)</div>
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Here is the Endothelial Health Program I developed for Jeff in 2008, to boost his nitric oxide levels and to heal his endothelial cellular layer. <a href="http://www.ccsvi.org/index.php/helping-myself/endothelial-health">http://www.ccsvi.org/index.php/helping-myself/endothelial-health</a><br />
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And here it is, in simple English</div>
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<b>1. Movement.</b> Daily cardiovascular pursuits are essential and healing. Shear stress, created by an active heart pumping flowing blood over endothelial cells, maintains EC integrity by increasing nitric oxide release. Inactivity allows endothelial cells to die. </div>
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<b>2. Stress reduction.</b> The acts of deep breathing, the practice of meditation, yoga, prayer, all reduce endothelial cell damaging cortisol and increase healing, vasodilating nitric oxide.</div>
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<b>3. Liver health.</b> Decreasing liver damaging toxins--like alcohol, plastics exposure, chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals, drugs--and increasing liver protecting flavonolignans (like silymarin) and antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables, maintains endothelial cell health.</div>
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<b>4. Sunshine and Vitamin D supplementation. </b>Skin makes vitamin D when exposed to ultraviolet B (UVB) rays from the sun. Because of sunscreen and our indoor lives, many people are not receiving enough of this potent hormone. And our circadian rhythm is affected. Vitamin D creates endothelial cell health by increasing nitric oxide. UV rays release nitrates from the skin, creating vasodilation. </div>
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<b>5. Sleep. </b>Sleep deprivation creates endothelial dysfunction and cell death.</div>
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<b>6. Eating whole, organic foods.</b> Eating a diet of whole foods (unprocessed foods; foods that retain the natural state) provide ample levels of nutrition, vitamins and antioxidants. Antioxidants bind with free radicals to minimize the damage they cause to the endothelium. Vitamins B and C are hugely protective of endothelial cells. A lack of B vitamins increases homocysteine, which kills endothelial cells.</div>
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<b>7. Eating healthy fats.</b> Increasing omega 3 (DHA) fats found in fish, olives, flax seed, avocados, walnuts, etc. and decreasing transfats and highly saturated animal fats improves endothelial cell health. </div>
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<b>8. Probiotics and gut health.</b> The endothelial cells of the gut's lining communicate with the rest of the body and rely on "good" bacteria. </div>
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<b>9. Essential minerals.</b> Magnesium, calcium and zinc are all important in the preservation of endothelial cells.</div>
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<b>10. Anti-inflammatory food sources, spices and herbs. </b>Curcumin, Salvia, Ginko, and Garlic are all shown to decrease inflammation and regulate blood viscosity, preventing hypercoagulation, allowing for better shear stress. </div>
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<b>11. Reducing glucose and gluten. </b>Sugary baked goods, simple breads, pastas and snack foods are damaging to endothelial cells. </div>
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<b>12. Smoking cessation. </b>Please quit...smoking kills endothelial cells.</div>
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<b>13. Laughter, joy, community, purpose, loving relationships. </b>All of these things increase nitric oxide and improve endothelial health. </div>
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Again, I am NOT a doctor. And you should consult your own doctors on best practices for YOU.<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let me know how it goes.</span><br />
Jeff and I are at home, thankful to be together, and still thankful for his health.<br />
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Stay well!!!</div>
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Joan<br />
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Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-90545598107422603192020-04-04T11:12:00.000-07:002020-04-04T12:01:55.173-07:00Thank you, Joan EmbryWe have lost a brilliant, courageous and loving woman. Joan Embry was deeply devoted to her family, as well as a movement for people with MS. Joan passed away on April 1 (unexpectedly and unrelated to COVID-19) <br />
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As a trained nurse and nutritionist, Joan Embry worked tirelessly with her husband, Ashton Embry, to create a program which might help their son cope with his multiple sclerosis diagnosis. Out of the love and concern for their son Mathew, the Embrys created Direct-MS, a proactive charity formed in 1998, with the goal of "providing information and strategies that could help reduce symptoms and even slow or halt disease progression." <a href="https://www.direct-ms.org/?fbclid=IwAR3BwHHSo0RiuoXt2P-oxEld5j6PtSPCbTJFyiKKxW0E9CxLTmUtwfcLBdw">DIRECT-MS link</a><br />
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The Best Bet Diet was a cornerstone development of the Embrys, based on scientific research compiled by Ashton Embry. Matt quickly incorporated this diet over 20 years ago, and he credits his successful, progression-free life with MS to this program. Here is Matt talking, enthusiastically and obviously wonderfully healthy, about the diet that changed his life. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=6XpaTgRv060&feature=emb_logo"> The BEST BET/MS HOPE DIET</a><br />
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This program would eventually be the inspiration for Dr. Terry Wahls program, as well as many others. It was a post about the Best Bet Diet on an MS bulletin board regarding vitamin D that sent me off to PubMed to explore the connection with my husband's diet, exercise and sunlight exposure; as related to his vascular problems. This eventually became The Endothelial Health Program. I would learn years later that it was Dr. Roy Swank who was the grandfather of this approach to healing with MS, as he had noted the vascular connection and impact of diet decades earlier. Dr. Swank was also the inspiration behind the Best Bet Diet.<br />
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The Embrys were at the very beginning of the empowered patient movement on the internet. We would eventually connect over Dr. Zamboni's research into the venous system and CCSVI in 2009, after my husband had been treated at Stanford University. The Embrys were curious about this research, and would begin the Canadian exploration into the vascular connection. Matt would eventually be treated for CCSVI.<br />
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But the cornerstone of Direct-MS is the diet. And as we all know---it's one thing to eliminate foods, but quite another to find foods and recipes that will keep us satisfied and fit into our lifestyles. Dr. Swank was well-aware of this problem, and worked with his patients to create his program, as did the Embry family.<br />
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In the last year of her life, Joan was updating recipes and working on The Best Bet Cookbook, which Direct-MS, incredibly generously, gives away for free on their website. You can download a free pdf of the book here: <a href="https://www.direct-ms.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Best_Bet_Diet_Cookbook.pdf"> The Best Bet Cookbook</a><br />
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The Embrys have never put profit or personal gain ahead of their message. They have always been tireless advocates for better living for those with MS. The few times we had together, in person, at The Canadian Neurovascular Health conferences or at our home for Matt's filming of Living Proof, were highlights in my advocacy work.<br />
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I can think of no better tribute to the Embry Family at this time, than to share their good news of hope and healing---by contributing to their charity, by downloading the Best Bet Cookbook, or by watching, or rewatching, Matt's beautifully made documentary film, Living Proof <a href="https://www.seelivingproof.com/">https://www.seelivingproof.com</a><br />
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Please join me in lifting the entire Embry family up in prayer and intention, however you practice this in your own life. <br />
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As Jeff and I go out to work in the garden today, to harvest greens and soak up the sunshine, we recognize how fortunate we are to have so much, in the midst of global suffering and hardship. We will say a prayer of gratitude, which includes the gift of the Embry family. We deeply recognize the importance of family, food, health, love, connection and hope. <br />
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All of the things Joan Embry held precious in her own life.<br />
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Thank you, Joan. <br />
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<br />Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-60326145432097354262020-02-13T13:50:00.003-08:002020-02-13T14:20:26.368-08:00Thank you, Anne. Dear Anne,<br />
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I love and admire you. I hope you knew that. I think I told you, but now I'm not sure. I love your boundless energy, your keen sense of justice, your brilliant mind, your ability to translate difficult concepts into language we can all understand. I admire how much you care about other human beings, and advocate for the sick, the poor, the marginalized, those without a voice. I relish reading anything you write. I will continue to read and re-read your book and articles and e-mails. I so wish there would be more.<br />
<a href="https://www.macleans.ca/author/annekingston/">Link to Macleans articles</a><br />
<a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312425005">Link to "The Meaning of Wife"</a><br />
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I simply can't imagine the world without your clarion voice, your wit, your tenacity. I can't imagine how your closest friends and family will cope with the loss of your presence in their lives. How they will deal with your much too soon, unbearable passing. I just heard from your friend, in a grief stricken voice mail (oh, I've had to make those phone calls when my brother died, and it's simply unbearable.) I do remember meeting him in Rochester with you, when you came from Toronto to see us and talk to us about Jeff's CCSVI treatment. It was such a joyous time for us all--it felt like rebirth. Springtime budding in Rochester, music, good food, laughter, hope.<br />
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And there have been the conferences together, e-mails, and phone calls. Difficult times full of controversy and medicalese and renewed and then dashed hopes. The last two years, I was so frustrated, and I know you knew that. I lashed out at you, angry that you were simply writing the truth. I felt betrayed, and we talked, and you forgave me. I'm so glad we made amends. Just as I'm glad that I did the same with my brother, before I lost him. You inspired me to keep writing, to not give up. But you also knew that, for my own sanity, I had to step back. <br />
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You dug in and included the history of the vascular connection to MS in your writing about CCSVI. Everything you wrote was always sourced with links to publications, quotes from doctors, a balanced approach to telling the story. <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/uncategorized/ccsvi-2013-debunking-spin-and-legal-drama/"> link</a> <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/uncategorized/time-to-liberate-liberation-therapy-from-ms-3/">link</a> <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/society/a-conflicted-clinical-trial-finds-treatment-for-ms-is-largely-ineffective/">link</a><br />
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Thank you for interviewing Dr. Michal Schwartz and for getting her research out into the larger public. <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/society/health/a-healthy-immune-system-is-the-key-to-a-healthy-mind/">link</a> You knew it was her research that first inspired me to look at immune cells as protective for the brain, and we bonded over the fact that a brilliant woman had, no surprise, been dismissed by so many powerful men for questioning dogma. <a href="https://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2015/06/dr-michal-schwartz-was-right.html">link</a> <br />
And over time, her theory is being proven, again and again. Someday, boosting specific immune cells and combining lifestyle and vascular intervention may well end neurodegenerative disease. <br />
<a href="https://www.weizmann.ac.il/neurobiology/labs/schwartz/publications">link to Professor Schwartz's research</a><br />
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You called us the "impatient patients"....which was simply a perfect description of the frustration that grew out of CCSVI clinical trials halted or mangled, and the influence of pharma. But many of us knew it wasn't over. <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/society/health/how-the-new-impatient-patient-is-disrupting-medicine/">link</a><br />
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Which is why it's hard for me to grasp your passing. There's still more to the story, many more truths for you to write. So much more. Dammit.<br />
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Thank you for everything. I learned so much from you, Anne.<br />
Love to all those who loved you. <br />
May we advocate for others, in your memory.<br />
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May we heed "the urgent call for compassion as the last-gasp remedy for systems on the brink—politics, health care, civil society, the planet itself." (written, as only you could say it, Anne.)<div>
<a href="https://www.macleans.ca/society/the-world-is-broken-and-human-kindness-is-the-only-solution/">The World is broken-and human kindness is the only solution, by Anne Kingston</a></div>
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<br />Joan<br /><br />
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Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-17935910108869984782020-02-02T12:34:00.001-08:002020-02-02T12:57:51.528-08:00Endothelial Health goes mainstream... .... and you can stream a new documentary to learn more.<br />
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Thanks to my son and daughter in law for the head's up on the documentary, THE GAME CHANGERS <a href="https://gamechangersmovie.com/">https://gamechangersmovie.com</a><br />
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Presented by James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jackie Chan — a revolutionary new film about optimum health and strength. You can view it now on Netflix.<br />
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My family told me I needed to watch it, because it was documenting what I have been harping on for years. My son saw me change his Dad's diet and lifestyle, and has heard me discussing this topic for over twelve years. Mainly, the importance of endothelial health, and how eating plants full of anti-oxidants and phytonutrients increases nitric oxide availability, helps endothelial cells, and increases blood flow to all of our body, most importantly our brains. </div>
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Nutrition is a very large componant of my program, which also includes physical activity, good sleep, sunshine, meditation, probiotics, minerals, smoking cessation, and laughter. Each and every one of these measures is known to increase nitric oxide, which relaxes our blood vessels and increases blood flow. This is how we can combat the hypoperfusion, or slowed and restricted cerebral bloodflow, seen in MS, Alzheimer's, dementia and Parkinson's. These are things we can do for ourselves. </div>
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<a href="https://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-endothelial-health-program-8-years.html">link to the program</a></div>
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This new movie is focused on elite athletes who utilize plant-based diets to achieve optimum strength and endurance. And while I do not specifically advocate a vegan lifestyle in The Endothelial Health Program, I suggest that people with MS favor whole foods and plants, to increase nitric oxide. (There are conflicting views on animal protein within the field of experts, and I DO NOT go into the weeds on this topic.) My approach has always been to look at positive environmental measures people with MS can take to feel better. And eating more plants will help accomplish that goal.</div>
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In the film, Dr. James Vogel, co-chair of the NFL subcommittee on Cardiovascular Health, discusses the importance of eating plants to increase available nitric oxide and increase blood flow. He even speaks of the endothelium, and uses the image shown below. (YES!)</div>
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Truly, The Endothelial Program works. Jeff remains on it. He's still jogging, biking, writing music, traveling, living life, with no MS progression, no new lesions, and a reversal of his gray matter atrophy. His most recent MRI shows continued healing of his brain, now 13 years since his diagnosis.</div>
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With the help of our vegan son and daughter in law, we have learned how to incorporate even more plants into our diet, boosting nitric oxide and reducing inflammatory foods. Like jackfruit (google it!), legumes, tempeh, and lots more greens. <br />
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My hope for all of us, as we begin a new decade, is that we can take care of ourselves, our families, our communities, and discover that there are many things we can do to improve our own health and the health of our planet. <br />
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Be well,<br />
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Joan </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy5ZZAWLT2EDcIB6Qzj6GRy4ZoMTBZ3mPwftUrY-nao7wmvMK5kDvb6RvOQC5WBmBqyeIufaAdDxTeUgKaeX0fKDDB8J-jYIsq3DiwF1op8Ct064h3W6YnuW_vQHHZc9nZlVspviD-0Nsg/s1600/image.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy5ZZAWLT2EDcIB6Qzj6GRy4ZoMTBZ3mPwftUrY-nao7wmvMK5kDvb6RvOQC5WBmBqyeIufaAdDxTeUgKaeX0fKDDB8J-jYIsq3DiwF1op8Ct064h3W6YnuW_vQHHZc9nZlVspviD-0Nsg/s640/image.png" width="640" /></a></div>
Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-67954366696111026842020-01-20T11:17:00.002-08:002020-01-20T13:09:30.469-08:00China continues to lead the researchNew research from neurosurgeons in Beijing looks at how the veins impact brain health. <br />
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6932895/">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6932895/</a><br />
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As most of you know by now, the arterial side, or blood flow delivery, receives all of the research. We have scans for the carotid arteries which are routinely given for stroke and cognitive dysfunction in aging populations. But this new resarch looked specifically at how jugular venous stenosis impacted cerebral perfusion, or the amount of blood flow exiting the brain.<br />
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It has seemed obvious to most of us that consideration of venous health must be determined in diseases of neurodegeneration. Sadly, this is not so in western neurology. North American and European neurology remains content to ignore venous health.<br />
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Hypoperfusion, or slowed blood flow, remains a constant finding in people with multiple sclerosis. <br />
<a href="http://www.ajnr.org/content/early/2018/01/11/ajnr.A5504">http://www.ajnr.org/content/early/2018/01/11/ajnr.A5504</a><br />
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6416892/">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6416892/</a><br />
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In this new research, Chinese neurologists studied those with cerebral venous stenosis (CVS) as well as patients with arterial stenosis (CAS) and those who had both arterial and venous stenosis (CAVS)<br />
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From the publication:<br />
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">Cerebral venous stenosis (CVS) mainly results from extracranial venostenosis (internal jugular vein stenosis, IJVS) and intracranial venostenosis (cerebral venous sinus stenosis, CVSS) [</span><a aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" class=" bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6932895/#r4" id="__tag_823539342" rid="r4" role="button" style="color: #642a8f; font-family: "Times New Roman", stixgeneral, serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">4</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">–</span><a aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" class=" bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6932895/#r7" id="__tag_823539337" rid="r7" role="button" style="color: #642a8f; font-family: "Times New Roman", stixgeneral, serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">7</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">]. Previous publications have described its typical clinical manifestations such as headache, noise, visual impair, sleep disorder and dysphrenia [</span><a aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" class=" bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6932895/#r4" id="__tag_823539302" rid="r4" role="button" style="color: #642a8f; font-family: "Times New Roman", stixgeneral, serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">4</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">, </span><a aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" class="bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6932895/#r8" id="__tag_823539331" rid="r8" role="button" style="color: #642a8f; font-family: "Times New Roman", stixgeneral, serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">8</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">]. It can be confirmed by magnetic resonance venography (MRV), computed tomography venography (CTV) and digital subtraction venography (DSV) generally, however, the presentations of brain tissue and perfusion-metabolism status are not fully known. Furthermore, since covered by CAS, some venous stenosis may be misdiagnosed. As for these patients, only treating on arterial stenosis is far from adequate, in contrast, restoring the patency of venous outflow is the key to relieve the refractory neurological symptoms. The aim of this study is to describe the clinical characteristics and imaging findings in CAS, CVS and CAVS, in attempt to further aid the differentiation of these disorders in the clinical settings.</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">Cerebral arterial stenosis (CAS) plays an important role in chronic cerebral circulation insufficiency (CCCI) [</span><a aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" class=" bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6932895/#r1" id="__tag_823539346" rid="r1" role="button" style="color: #642a8f; font-family: "Times New Roman", stixgeneral, serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">1</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">–</span><a aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" class=" bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6932895/#r3" id="__tag_823539314" rid="r3" role="button" style="color: #642a8f; font-family: "Times New Roman", stixgeneral, serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">3</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">]. Persistent reduced cerebral blood volume and flow cause ischemia and hypoxia in the brain tissue, leading to various brain dysfunctions [</span><a aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" class=" bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6932895/#r1" id="__tag_823539324" rid="r1" role="button" style="color: #642a8f; font-family: "Times New Roman", stixgeneral, serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">1</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">]. Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) has also been confirmed to contribute to neurological deficits and impose a significant impact on cerebral arterial circulation to some extent [</span><a aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" class=" bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6932895/#r4" id="__tag_823539315" rid="r4" role="button" style="color: #642a8f; font-family: "Times New Roman", stixgeneral, serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">4</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">–</span><a aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" class=" bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6932895/#r9" id="__tag_823539333" rid="r9" role="button" style="color: #642a8f; font-family: "Times New Roman", stixgeneral, serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">9</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">]. In theory, CCSVI plays a causative role in pathogenesis of CCCI as well. Venous outflow disturbance may raise the pressure in arterio-venous anastomoses and affect the blood flow (CBF) and volume (CBV) in the arterial system subsequently [</span><a aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" class=" bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6932895/#r4" id="__tag_823539340" rid="r4" role="button" style="color: #642a8f; font-family: "Times New Roman", stixgeneral, serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">4</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">–</span><a aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" class=" bibr popnode tag_hotlink tag_tooltip" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6932895/#r6" id="__tag_823539307" rid="r6" role="button" style="color: #642a8f; font-family: "Times New Roman", stixgeneral, serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">6</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">]. <b>Advanced neuroimaging can confirm vasculopathic diagnoses, but clinicians often neglect to further explore the disorders as they related to venous vasculopathy. This leaves many patients with rather severe venous stenosis-related ailment untreated and in a great deal of suffering.</b></span></i><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;"><b>And what did they find?</b></span><br />
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;"><b>N</b></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">eurological impairments including sleep disturbance, hearing disorder, visual disorder, headache, tinnitus, tinnitus cerebri, dry or puffy eyes, neck discomfort, dizziness, anxiety or depression and nausea or vomiting were commonly seen in CVS and CAVS group. The incidences of subjective memory decline were almost same among three groups.</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">It is now eleven years since Jeff was treated for his severe jugular venous stenosis. His previous symptoms of headache, fatigue, heat intolerence, dizziness, sleep disturbance, and sleep apnea have remained resolved. He is able to jog, work, engage in outdoor activities, travel, live life. He has had no further white matter lesions, and his gray matter atrophy has reversed. His brain continues to heal, as many lesions have shrunk or disappeared. For this, we are thankful.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">I am also thankful that the ISNVD continues to study venous stenosis and MS diagnoses. I am thankful for the Chinese researchers who are helping their patients, and looking at how treating venous stenosis heals the brain. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">Here are a few of their publications on treating jugular venous stenosis, and outcomes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;"><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0300060519860678">https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0300060519860678</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;"><a href="http://www.ijcem.com/files/ijcem0042381.pdf">http://www.ijcem.com/files/ijcem0042381.pdf</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;"><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cns.12859">https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cns.12859</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">I am not hopeful for North American and </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 15.999099731445312px;">European research, however, as the MS drug companies are forecast to be a $40 billion dollar industry by 2026. </span></span><a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/07/19/1885221/0/en/Multiple-Sclerosis-Drugs-Market-to-Reach-US-39-289-5-Mn-by-2026-at-a-CAGR-of-6-7-Leading-Companies-Focus-on-Strategic-Collaborations-to-Expand-their-Footprint-says-Fortune-Business.html">link</a><br />
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Stay well, keep moving, get UV rays, eat whole foods, engage in community, remain positive and keep your eyes on the horizon. <br />
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Joan<br />
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Here are some of the images from the Chinese publication<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMJVn1804LY2wLT5m2kMZ0YAQ9vpHkxEa_8SUBKze8UfWAUAK16alQxVUjnZ-zgf8wD4_AnWcGwLsKFUuS2S0IcNtnhL1dKiAy7L3SyAZ911EpV8WlHQhfO0pimfSDFGJITYrmjgJ4rElY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2020-01-20+at+11.16.25+AM.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="488" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMJVn1804LY2wLT5m2kMZ0YAQ9vpHkxEa_8SUBKze8UfWAUAK16alQxVUjnZ-zgf8wD4_AnWcGwLsKFUuS2S0IcNtnhL1dKiAy7L3SyAZ911EpV8WlHQhfO0pimfSDFGJITYrmjgJ4rElY/s640/Screen+Shot+2020-01-20+at+11.16.25+AM.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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Here is my husband's MRV from Stanford 5/09, prior to his stenting treatment to open his jugular veins. Notice the curly collateral veins running alongside the pinched jugulars. This is what venous stenosis looks like. He did not have an MRV after treatment, but he did have his cerebral blood flow transit time measured and his hypoperfusion was reversed.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBis1TiWzHAHocdssowJcNhs8bx0qKjlBDyIk60hhzZpXSCK_6vnruxgwwtsS2UfUpdVBgc8J5v-SI1CkBHqZ_ZEkPQW2xdLqnd_-B4w15WSmvEP-Lxd9T9ph3d10M7PnNifzWeBhjw6mE/s1600/pastedGraphic-1.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBis1TiWzHAHocdssowJcNhs8bx0qKjlBDyIk60hhzZpXSCK_6vnruxgwwtsS2UfUpdVBgc8J5v-SI1CkBHqZ_ZEkPQW2xdLqnd_-B4w15WSmvEP-Lxd9T9ph3d10M7PnNifzWeBhjw6mE/s320/pastedGraphic-1.jpg" width="156" /></a><br />
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-85149391992536348932019-08-30T09:17:00.002-07:002019-08-30T11:12:03.686-07:00The way forwardWe've all learned a great deal about how to live well in advocating for better MS treatments.<br />
One important lesson I've witnessed is that healing is not about making money. We will never heal disease if we put dollars before people.<br />
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Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. <br />
Our world is insane. We sense this, and we know things must change. But we become overwhelmed by the immensity of the situation.<br />
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The health of our own selves, our neighbors and our world depends on our awakening to this need for change. We cannot sit by and be passive, or wait for some politician or celebrity to fix this. There are no caped crusaders coming. For those who are believers, we know that our creator asks us to take care of others, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are all going to have to care. If you've read this far, chances are you also care. So, consider the rest of this post a bit of encouragement to keep going.<br />
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In the past twelve years, since Jeff was first diagnosed with MS, I've seen very little movement in the understanding of MS etiology, or what causes MS. We've seen over 10 new pharmaceutical treatments come on to the market, with varying degrees of success in addressing only one type of MS, relapsing remitting. All of these drugs are based on the unproven theory of an errant immune system which needs to be beaten down, modified, or ablated. But not one drug has addressed the underlying loss of gray matter integrity, or neurodegeneration--- which is behind MS disease progression. Understanding the vascular connection to MS has been underfunded, and in the case of CCSVI, only funded to be debunked. This is because it is difficult to monetize a new, cardiovascularly focused lifestyle. There is not one pill to heal the endothelium, or increase the brain's perfusion and lymphatic drainage.<br />
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Even with all of the negative influences of social media: the bickering, the false narratives, the hacking and use by foreign agents to create chaos---even with all of this darkness, there has been the light of connection. People have found help for their most pressing concerns. We've seen people care enough to share good information on wellness and lifestyle modifications, as well as the vascular treatment modalities, and this has changed lives. <br />
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Ordinary people have shown up, created the conferences, gone to the meetings, walked alongside others. Some even made movies, wrote books, funded research, found doctors, walked the walk and showed others an "alternative" way to treat MS. And because of all of these efforts, those newly diagnosed with MS are doing better. When Jeff and I meet newly diagnosed people these days, they ALL know about and implement healthy diet plans, optimize vitamin D levels and sunshine exposure, exercise, meditate, and employ good sleep habits. They believe they can change their lifestyles and affect their health. And they do. We might forget, but this focus on lifestyle modification is new! <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/ms-diagnosis-inspired-5-people-get-best-shape-lives-130032767.html">link</a><br />
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Here's a wonderful upcoming conference on alternative MS treatments in BC, Canada this October 19th, hosted by the Canadian Neurovascular Health Society <br />
<a href="https://www.cnhs.ca/copy-of-2018-neurovascular-health-c">https://www.cnhs.ca/copy-of-2018-neurovascular-health-c</a><br />
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Beyond the pharmaceutical world, we've watched other wealthy and powerful corporations put their bottom line above human life. From the fossil fuel industry, to the rise in private prisons, the industrial-military complex, the gun manufacturers, and industrial food producers. These industries create products which are not benign. They make money harming our bodies, our water, land and air. They have changed our planet, perhaps irrevocably. They make money exploiting our fears.<br />
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In my lifetime, the world's population has doubled---from 3.5 billion to over 7 billion humans. And there will be more people coming. Projections are for 10 billion humans on earth by 2050. Considering a human beings' value in terms of money-making potential-- as a creator or consumer---will no longer suffice. Dividing people into groups of good/bad, legal/illegal, white/brown, Christian/Muslim/Jew/non-believer will not work. There will be more and more climate change refugees, as people will be forced to leave their drought stricken homelands in search of water, food, life. Building higher walls, creating harsher penalties will not stop the flow of humans seeking survival. They are us.<br />
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We will have to ask ourselves, how can we create a world which will sustain life, and not focus on depleting our resources for financial gain. How can we be leaders in the change? How can we share and care for our neighbors as ourselves? <br />
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"We need knowledge of how to share." I highly recommend you watch this short, inspiring video. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyMHCDqiKGw">Link to Vandana Shiva discussing the Way Forward</a><br />
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Encouraging YOU to find the way forward.<br />
Joan<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfh5FRhTkG91n2F8Txg6Nm1YLq6c_oT6o0NU7e5nUSBf3wDP7dVYGId2i67UAb5LJpQCZlsx7Ojoe-vHJPAG_qpYY7bn75BWw_yPUY0OkHgOL5PKiBusVnm7R7tYojySUU3BzLLy_Uq5d9/s1600/image.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfh5FRhTkG91n2F8Txg6Nm1YLq6c_oT6o0NU7e5nUSBf3wDP7dVYGId2i67UAb5LJpQCZlsx7Ojoe-vHJPAG_qpYY7bn75BWw_yPUY0OkHgOL5PKiBusVnm7R7tYojySUU3BzLLy_Uq5d9/s640/image.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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<br />Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-65680082897253220982019-06-03T09:57:00.001-07:002019-06-11T07:57:14.243-07:00Lessons learned from The Biggest Little Farm<div style="color: #323333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">When Jeff was diagnosed with MS in 2007 and I began reading about Multiple Sclerosis disease etiology, I wondered why more and more people were being diagnosed in recent decades. Was it simply better means of diagnosis, thanks to MRI technology? Or was there something more, something about our modern lives that contributed to rising rates of MS?</span></div>
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When I looked at all of the things that had changed over the last two centuries, and how these environmental changes and MS were linked, I found the connection I was searching for in the endothelium. <a href="https://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2015/03/changing-things-we-can-change.html">link</a> The Endothelial Health Program was created as a means to restore endothelial cell health, and it addressed all of the environmental factors connected to MS---all of the things we could change in our lives. <a href="https://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-endothelial-health-program-8-years.html">link</a> And in the ensuing years, researchers have published on this connection, as well. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5947729/">Western lifestyle and MS</a> -- <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568997215000245">Intestinal permeability, food additives and MS</a> --<br />
<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228866917_The_Western_diet_and_lifestyle_and_diseases_of_civilization">The Western diet/lifestyle and disease</a></div>
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It has been a journey for me and Jeff, and so many of you, as together we learned how to incorporate nature, sunshine, organic nutrition, outdoor exercise, better sleep habits, reduced time with technology and stress, and increased time with family and mindful living. Our recent friendship with farmers John and Molly Chester, creators of Apricot Lane Farms and the documentary The Biggest Little Farm, (which Jeff scored), has reaffirmed all that I intuited over a decade ago. Our health as human beings relies on the health of our surroundings. All that we breathe, eat, drink, take in and love becomes part of us. <br />
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I hope you have an opportunity to see <b>The Biggest Little Farm</b> on a big screen. <a href="https://www.biggestlittlefarmmovie.com/">link</a> This film is all about the inconnectiveness of life on planet earth, the importance of healthy soil for healthy food and healthy lives, and living in harmony with nature. It is very much like the description below, of life lived before the industrial revolution. I hope you can find ways to make these changes in your own life. I hope we can ease the pain of MS in our lifetime. And I hope we can heal our planet. Because we are all connected.<br />
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Here is a section from The Endothelial Health Program I wrote in 2008, about the change in our modern lives, and the impacts on health. </div>
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Be well,</div>
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Joan</div>
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<b style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Life as it been lived for thousands of years</b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">You and your husband get up from bed as the sun rises and the rooster crows. You get dressed and head outside together to milk the cows and feed the livestock. You work the pump at the well, get a drink of water, which comes from a fresh spring underground. The physical exertion of pumping water and carrying it, lifting the feed and milking the cows has worked up a good sweat. You gather some fresh eggs from the henhouse, and head inside to cook breakfast. The meal includes coffee or tea made with spring water, fresh milk from the cow, eggs and toast with apple preserves, jarred last fall.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The children rise, get dressed, eat together and are soon out the door to walk to school. Your husband heads off to his work in the barn. There is laundry to be washed and hung on the line and gardening to do. You spend over two hours out doors, in the sunshine. Again, hard work and more exercise. This is not a life of leisure!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Fresh fruits and vegetables are eaten in season and canned and jarred for off season. There isnʼt meat every day, but fish from the stream or chicken from the henhouse are served. Grains are whole, and flaxseed is added to the bread. Root vegetables and greens are plentiful. Mealtime is spent together as a family. After dinner, and after the dishes pots and pans are cleaned, the family sits together and reads or plays board games. Soon the sun sets and itʼs time for bed. Everyone is tired from the dayʼs activities and ready to sleep.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>21st Century--Our Modern Life</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">You rise in the dark to the incessant buzz of the alarm clock. Itʼs a quick shower in chlorinated city water and blow dry before heading to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. You get your water from the tap and microwave a breakfast sandwich of processed ham and cheese to go. You check your e-mail on the laptop and holler to wake your husband and the kids and hurry them up- thereʼs no time to waste! They get dressed, grab their backpacks and eat their microwaved breakfasts as everyone piles into the van.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Itʼs off to school where you drop them at the door. Then you get back on the freeway to sit in traffic. Love those fumes! Youʼre starting to get a headache. Trapped on the road, you try to make good use the time by calling clients and checking your phone. Your stress levels are now through the roof of the van. You get to the office late and have to deal with everything that has been piled on your desk. No time for the gym, and lunch is going to be a bag of peanut M&Ms and a can of Coke. You never see the light of day, except through your office windows. By the time you get home, itʼs dark and the kids are fighting over the Playstation. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">You still need to make dinner. Your husband has texted you, heʼs running late and will miss dinner...again.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">You pile the kids back in the van and head to a fast food place. Itʼs drive through and the kids donʼt mind. Youʼre famished and get a double cheeseburger, since you skipped lunch, how could it hurt? You get everyone home and get the kids doing their homework. Itʼs nine pm before you know it, and your husband finally gets home. He walks in and just wants to sit in front of the TV, heʼs exhausted. You get the kids bathed and into bed. Itʼs 11pm before you fall into bed, head pounding. You have trouble sleeping, and it seems like by the time you finally drift off, the damn alarm is ringing again!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I do not mean to over-romaticize or idealize the lives of men and women from centuries ago. Theirs was a very different experience, and it was physically and emotional demanding. People got sick then, very sick, and many died premature deaths.<b> But not many suffered from chronic diseases</b>. Our modern lifestyle is much easier in many ways-- we have automated appliances to do our labor, vehicles to transport us, and conveniences our great, great grandparents could only have dreamed of. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Our modern lifestyle has disrupted many natural and hormonal patterns</b>; such as the circadian rhythm. We no longer use the sun to tell us when to rise and set. And doctors are seeing a deficiency of vitamin D (the hormone made by our skin when exposed to sunlight) linked to many diseases. Not coincidentally, lack of sunshine is one of the causes of endothelial dysfunction.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Here are some of the modern issues which are harming our endothelium:</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">1. <b>Oxidative stress</b>- Our bodies constantly react with oxygen as we breathe and as our cells produce energy. Our utilization of oxygen is a two-edged sword. We need oxygen to survive, but as a consequence of </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">using oxygen, highly reactive molecules are produced known as free radicals. These are electrons which have lost their partner in our breathing or energy process, or from outside influences, and they are now on their own. Unpaired, these free radical electrons damage the endothelial wall and make it permeable. Free radicals disrupt the balance of nitric oxide. In most instances, our body has enough of a supply of antioxidants from food to neutralize these molecules, but if the body is depleted, or there are too many coexistent factors, there is injury to the endothelium and a change in the balance of NO.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Some external factors which can dramatically increase the number of free radicals in our bodies and influence NO when we ingest, inhale or come in contact with them are:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Plastics</b>, especially PCBs and BPA (1)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Smoking </b>and second hand smoke</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Smoking reduces nitric oxide in the blood vessels and causes an increase in ADMA, the modified amino acid which puts strain on the heart. Nicotine also causes vessels to narrow, so that less oxygen is delivered to the heart. Platelets become stickier, and therefore clot formation is increased. Smoking raises the level of carbon monoxide in the blood, which increases the risk of injury to endothelial cells. (2/13)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Metals</b> exposure such as mercury and cadmium (3)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Air pollution</b>, especially diesel exhaust (4)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Chlorine</b> found in public drinking water (5)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">2.<b> Eating Bad fats</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Heavily saturated trans fats, hydrogenated fats and chemically-altered fats damage the endothelium. (6)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">3.<b> Stress</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Cortisol, the hormone released into the body when we are under acute stress, impairs endothelial production. (7)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">4.<b> Sleep deprivation</b>- Lack of restful sleep, due to obstructive sleep apnea or simply not enough time in bed, creates endothelial dysfunction and constricts blood flow.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">5. <b>Acute Bacterial or Viral infections</b> -</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Chlamydia pneumonia, Lyme disease, Sepsis, Staph, EBV</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">All of these infections can become chronic as the endothelium is weakened, bacteria and viruses enter the tissues and the immune system is unable to fight (8)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">6. <b>Low Vitamin D levels</b>-</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">A lack of sunshine and dietary vitamin D injures the endothelium (9)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">7. <b>Low Vitamin B12 levels</b>-</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Anemia/low vit. B12 creates high levels of homocysteine in the blood (a sulfur containing amino acid) which damages the endothelium A strict vegetarian diet that excludes all meat, fish, dairy and eggs, or an </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">unbalanced diet of processed foods could create low vit. B12 levels and damage the endothelium (10)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">8.<b> High intake of glucose</b>-</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Ingesting too much glucose in the form of simple sugars increases endothelial cell death and increases oxidative stress (11)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">9. <b>Sedentary Lifestyle</b></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Lack of physical exertion, especially cardio-vascular exercise, damages the endothelium (12)</span></div>
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For research cited:<br />
<a href="http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2009/08/endothelial-health-program-august-26.html">http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2009/08/endothelial-health-program-august-26.html</a></div>
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The Chester Family</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTOSFrv487DJ5RMhMkDP-lOp8RsWc0-3Dm_VMBpJpk9RxK90tznQ1_5uQVSxku8_iHdnwCZJJpGdgkZoZmVTJUh34l4N07ecJtip0fFTL4tvkNe1ggMG5iYMWu22oyHxunWHF0A_coT8GJ/s1600/la-1557418608-26r5zijekd-snap-image.jpeg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTOSFrv487DJ5RMhMkDP-lOp8RsWc0-3Dm_VMBpJpk9RxK90tznQ1_5uQVSxku8_iHdnwCZJJpGdgkZoZmVTJUh34l4N07ecJtip0fFTL4tvkNe1ggMG5iYMWu22oyHxunWHF0A_coT8GJ/s640/la-1557418608-26r5zijekd-snap-image.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-2194883867368845032019-01-24T08:35:00.000-08:002019-01-24T09:05:06.607-08:00The Healing Power of Music<div style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14.000000953674316px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
Most, but maybe not all, of you know that I'm a professional singer by trade. I studied classical voice at the Eastman School of Music, where I also met my husband Jeff. I've sung with the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Opera Company, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, but the majority of my career has been as a studio singer in LA. I've sung on a lot of film and TV scores, albums, commercials. Heck, you may have even heard me, and not realized it. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1469349/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1">link to credits</a></div>
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Music continues to be my passion. But my interest in music has changed over the years. Especially as I watched how music affected Jeff. After his diagnosis with MS, it was listening to music which would ease his neuropathic pain and calm his anxieties. When he recommitted himself to his craft of composition, conducting and performing, I watched him heal. Music was part of his new lifestyle. One which incorporated a new way of eating, exercising, meditating, living. His venoplasty procedure at Stanford allowed him even more energy to pursue his passion. We watched his brain heal on subsequent MRIs. <a href="https://www.ksl.com/article/43035236">Link to Jeff talking about music, CCSVI and MS</a></div>
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Music is universal. The images I've linked below are from a recent study. They show six different human brains listening to music, while scanned with fMRI. The brains on the left listened to J. S. Bach's first invention-- a gorgeous classical work which is a 2 voice fugue, originally composed as an exercise for Bach's sons. Here is the great Glenn Gould. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe6oMxJIGQU&list=RDpe6oMxJIGQU&start_radio=1&t=0">link to Bach's 1st Invention</a></div>
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The people whose brains were scanned were not musicians, or at all familiar with the piece. However, there is activation across most brain regions, as shown by the orange color of activity on the scans. Notice how the images all look almost exactly the same, no matter the age, socio-economic status or health of the participant. Bach touched their brains in the same way. Bach made their brains become alert, energized, activated. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhypd1sjF5ThiRS4IV9EpdmwAACRGyMCzmWtoNXzjPvbzUHWFqpTW3InlTT1oYL6TmD4a873UrlVbgrW7H7oRW1AT0yZxL7LvtrsY04ZHnsjKyVC4ZAUF4wYC92EIRZ9pzXBdo9MK2jiF2o/s1600/33651433_10215606771307648_183065494864003072_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhypd1sjF5ThiRS4IV9EpdmwAACRGyMCzmWtoNXzjPvbzUHWFqpTW3InlTT1oYL6TmD4a873UrlVbgrW7H7oRW1AT0yZxL7LvtrsY04ZHnsjKyVC4ZAUF4wYC92EIRZ9pzXBdo9MK2jiF2o/s640/33651433_10215606771307648_183065494864003072_n.jpg" width="282" /></a></div>
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Orange= Activation</div>
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Blue= Oxygenation</div>
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On the right are the same peoples' brains listening to self-selected music-- which they chose because they loved how it made them feel. Notice how now the brain is activated in different regions, but the effect is one of calming and oxygenation--as shown by the color blue. <b>This is the power of the music we love on our brains---it calms and soothes us, releases our emotions, heals us.</b></div>
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Why is this important? Physicians are now using self-selected music in psychiatric hospital settings to calm and "medicate" patients, and give them hope and healing. Music therapists are using different playlists to work with stroke patients, to help them regain balance, brain function, and health. Music is being employed as medicine. <a href="http://www.dana.org/News/Different_Types_of_Music_May_Aid_Stroke_Recovery/">link</a></div>
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I saw this in action last year, in a ground-breaking hospital, where a classically trained composer and fellow Eastman alumnus, J. Todd Frazier, has created a program which is changing music therapy. New imaging modality is showing us what happens to the human brain on music. He believes we were created to be music makers, listeners, participants. Music is essential to humanity. <a href="https://www.papercitymag.com/culture/methodists-music-man-son-houstons-legendary-heart-surgeon-heals-unique-way/?fbclid=IwAR0FB-OF8joLLND5rtHu0oz_qPjSmITgLhxiYgOAyRUc_RRdm9sfxL1nIG0">link to more info on J. Todd Frazier</a></div>
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Here is the abstract for the published paper the fMRI image is taken from. Todd was one of the authors on this study. While in Houston, I also met with Dr. Karmonik, the world renowned MRI imaging expert behind these studies---and he is not a musician, but he has become a believer in the brain altering power of music. <a data-ft="{"tn":"-U"}" data-lynx-mode="origin" data-lynx-uri="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov%2Fpubmed%2F27464741%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0RzrqC1JHH2kQC-bcSt6uYNikgAdgRxNv5sc0len54ziGS9ff_WsPie2U&h=AT0XbX5ZHAizhsMVvJRYvrOpEc72KquEGt4jousm185_Oxbokna3_T_bg1R2N7eUR1fpO2jMwhYw6JK9W3uzxj3xj5bgDIerzySTnWqJfOwCJi8hqYssgPMUXQhEWCWMIgM3eX24v6lAjiK7J_4J-YwAsPRnPQ4mak6rVxD9p3VMRYrhclJ74cPLmxT4Ej8nhlV5BkSS6PkLJPfUlvfh_7phLjowd0VG4Un2CsXTQSlYEDmAwaD3ZL1WaHdYLz1HCVxtiW5dvZxE8wHcGVcvCh4KeIdX3VFlcpGyYtiMG51NUqCLTQ2Sn8uJ0x8nr7olRFuvzE8IpQFvgHRJixr-C-euLb8iDxikS4geuOMIQygAwSSPy6mjN6Ee5AAeQaJqOkjN6TK1k7_1H0qy0zyc5dhKkY2ShS312Px3dyP5l9HG4gOzDp5Z__lm8sqmGmV7q2iPQZm-3PORU6NYUx7f1jSjMfrfNpCMT-h28XVdCU4xl0nLAlV_YELV0Js0eZUEfhPfagPSqJzMdGdpCBEoqfl7RaM9cy5HpIRgzQ52Wqww9s4XS2ccpQ" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27464741?fbclid=IwAR0RzrqC1JHH2kQC-bcSt6uYNikgAdgRxNv5sc0len54ziGS9ff_WsPie2U" rel="noopener nofollow" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27464741</a></div>
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"The researchers found distinct brain activation patterns for the different music pieces. The self-selected pieces, which Frazier says were quite diverse, brought about significant activity in the emotion and memory centers of the brain, while unfamiliar music activated attention and memory areas. Karmonik notes that, despite such different self-selected musical pieces, the patterns of brain activity were remarkably similar.</div>
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“We showed a similar connectivity pattern in the brains of these individuals in the self-selected music,” he says. “This is important because it shows it’s the music. That music really drives all of these brain processes even if you are of a different age, gender, or background. That familiar music really seems to do something for everybody.”</div>
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Having spent time with J. Todd Frazier, in meetings and in the hospital he has changed, I've become a believer. Todd's original desire was to prove the importance of music education---he was frustrated by the perception that music was not essential in schools, that music was merely entertainment. As the son of a physician, he knew better, and set out to change this perception. But now his mission is even greater. He wants to use music to heal.</div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.000000953674316px;">Since meeting Todd, I've wanted to bring this program to other hospitals, to more patients, to future music therapists and researchers. And that is why I became more involved as a trustee at the University of Rochester. Thankfully, other trustees and administrators agreed with Todd. The Eastman School of Music and University of Rochester Medical Center will now begin a collaborative music and medicine program, to further understand and utilize the healing power of music. </span></div>
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So, what can you do, today, to incorporate this science? I would recommend putting together a 30 minute playlist of your very favorite music. This should include music you are very familiar with, music which makes you feel something beautiful. Every day, when you need to relax --go to a quiet place and listen to your familiar music playlist with headphones. Breathe deeply and let the music wash over you. You are oxygenating your brain. </div>
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You should also explore new music in styles that you enjoy, but are not as familiar with. When you are feeling terrific and energized already, try listening to this new music. Let it further activate and stimulate your brain. Try dancing or moving to the music in any way you can. You are increasing neuronal pathways.</div>
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I hope this science gives you some hope and encouragement. We can do so many things to heal our own brains--by adding music to nutrition, exercise, sunshine, meditation, sleep. Our complete solution to chronic illness will never be found in one pill or infusion. Healing means living in a new way.</div>
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Be well,</div>
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Joan </div>
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Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-89328084417840140292019-01-02T21:12:00.000-08:002019-01-21T11:12:18.174-08:00What happened?It's been awhile since my last blog entry. It's not for lack of published research on the vascular connection to MS, as there are new studies showing slowed (hypo) perfusion in the MS brain <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29795976">link</a> a breakdown of the blood brain barrier preceding lesion formation <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30417928">link</a> and further evidence of the importance of cardiovascular health in maintaining brain volume for pwMS. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30103277">link</a><br />
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The hiatus was simply because Jeff and I have been busy. We've been traveling, performing, giving masterclasses, celebrating our son getting married and receiving his master's degree, and enjoying living. Jeff remains active and continues to jog, hike and bike. He has been very busy with composing commissions, including a song cycle for the St. Louis Symphony, a symphony for the New West Symphony, and new chamber and dance works. Some new scoring projects to look out for in 2019 are the documentary "The Biggest Little Farm" and a new series for ABC called "Grand Hotel." Trust me, we know we're blessed. When Jeff was first diagnosed with MS in 2007, his prognosis was pretty dire. We do not take his health, or our lives today, for granted.<br />
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I wanted to write this post to share a very important paper I first read several years ago. It was written in 1988--over 30 years ago! <b>I believe it can help us answer the question as to <i>what happened to CCSVI? </i></b><br />
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The entire paper is here: <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1467-9566.ep11340153">Malcom Nicolson and Cathleen McLaughlin :Social constructionism and medical sociology: a study of the vascular theory of multiple sclerosis</a><br />
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The authors are responding to a critique of their work, which stated that societal hierarchies really didn't influence medical research, and needn't be considered. The writers disagreed with this critique, and in this paper they show how medical research and treatment are developed with a societal bias. This bias depends on who claims ownership of a particular disease and what their specialty is. A researcher's area of knowledge and expertise decide how a disease is viewed and treated.<br />
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From the paper:<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Scientists cannot therefore devise scientific theories solely in the light of their direct immediate experience of phenomena. <b>They base new knowledge upon the relevant data and upon their pre- existing beliefs and theories.</b> We understand the unknown in the light of what we already know - which, of course, in tum has its roots in training and in prior socialisation. Different observers, therefore, produce radically different cognitive worlds because modes of observation, and the points from which observation takes place, differ.</i></span></div>
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And the authors use<b> multiple sclerosis as their empirical case study-</b>--by outlining how the neuron-centric neurologists had ignored and even deliberately buried the evidence of the vascular system's impact on brain health, in order to focus on their own immunological view of the disease and their pharmaceutical immune modulating treatments.<br />
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This is from the abstract:<br />
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<i>A recent debate surrounding the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis is analysed in terms of the skills, interests and backgrounds of the medical personnel involved. <b>It is noted that the proponents of the vascular theory possess developed expertises in interpreting disease in structural, vascular terms, whereas their opponents' skills lie in immunology or neurology. Different observers have produced different conceptions of the disease because modes of observation, and the points from which observation takes place, differ. It is also noted that the debate over the causation and treatment of MS has occurred between a large and powerful social group and a weak and marginal one. </b>The effects of this power inequality on the production and assessment of knowledge about MS are investigated. </i><br />
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The vascular links to MS have long been known, since <b>Rindfleisch</b> first saw the central vein sign through a microscope in 1863. CCSVI was not the first vascular treatment to be "debunked" by neurologists using badly designed and obviously biased studies.<br />
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As the paper states many times, vascular specialists are not as powerful as neurologists, and rarely are able to respond to these dismissals or badly replicated stabs at their research. They are paid less, receive less funding for their research, are less respected. We've seen them disparaged as "plumbers." Neurologists comment that this is because blood vessels are not as complex as the brain. And yet, ironically, it is a lowly central vein sign which is 100% accurate in diagnosing MS lesions.<br />
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29328521">The Central Vein Sign</a> <br />
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Before Dr. Zamboni was ever called a quack, <b>Dr. Tracy Putnam,</b> the founding neurologist of the National MS Society, was maligned for using a newly discovered blood thinner, dicoumarin, to treat his MS patients. Neurologists were quick to point out that the blood thinner did not help all people with MS, and Putnam's work was therefore invalid. All of his prior work, his blocking venous return in dogs and creating MS lesions, his understanding of the venous system, was rejected in toto. Because the new and exciting science of immunology was gaining traction and research funding. <a href="https://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2012/06/dr.html">link</a><br />
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After that, <b>Dr. Roy Swank </b>received the "quack" treatment in the 1960s, for suggesting a cardiovascularly healthy low fat diet and exercise could help MS patients. Even though Swank showed improvements in the vast majority of MS patients who remained on his program, neurologists tossed his research in the trash, mocking him and claiming his studies were not valid. <a href="https://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2015/04/an-apology-letter-to-dr-roy-swank-from.html">link</a><br />
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<b>Dr. Franz Schelling</b>, an Austrian physician published a complete review of prior vascular MS research, and asked important questions as to why the jugular foramen opening and venous returns in skulls of people with MS were vastly different from normal skulls. He research took place at the University of Innsbruck in the 1970s, and his original paper would be published, and is frequently cited by vascular and anatomical researchers, but not neurologists. ( <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-size-of-selected-human-skull-foramina-in-to-Wysocki-Reymond/34661d37f2d0b4cd8a4bf43644b869ab4f76faf1">link</a> <a href="https://www.ijmhr.org/ijar_articles_vol1_03/IJAR-2013-233.pdf"> link</a> <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/028418518602700312">link</a> )<br />
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He then studied cerebral lesions and found a mechanical connection between venous reflux and lesion presentation in the brain and spine. Dr Franz Schelling produced a Poster Presentation - The Discovery of the Venous Origin of Cerebral Multiple Sclerosis - at the Second European Congress of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) in Medicine and Biology. He was there to encourage other researchers to look at what he had discovered in people with MS <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/alison-fisher/lost-but-now-found-dr-franz-schellings-1988-presentation-the-discovery-of-the-ve/1135646953141518/">link to poster</a><br />
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Highly recommended and thorough research, which was tossed in the bin with nary a response or curious inquiry from neurologists, and a tragic portrayal of quackery, once again.<br />
<a href="http://www.ms-info.net/evo/msmanu/839.htm">link to Schelling's research</a><br />
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The paper on Social Constructivism focuses on another doctor who was similarly dismissed. <b>Dr. Philip James </b>had the same exact treatment of his hyperbaric oxygen MS studies in the 70s and 80s. First, he was labeled a quack, then neurologists attempted to copy his studies, changed his protocol and (no surprise!) couldn't replicate his results. Again, research tossed into the garbage. This pattern of debunking vascular studies has a long, sordid history.<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 12pt;">As the accounts of new experiments and fresh clinical trials are published, each side is able to place its own interpretation upon the results. The early hyperbaric oxygen trials were badly organised and poorly controlled. The results were thus easy to dismiss, particularly since multiple sclerosis is often marked by spontaneous remission, regardless of medical intervention. </span></i></div>
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What is most important to take away from all of this is that each of these older "debunked" treatments----HBOT, diet, exercise, blood thinners (such as aspirin) <b>are now scientifically recognized as helpful to people with MS, because of their affect on cerebral blood flow. </b> And people with MS often utilize some or all of these treatments, without realizing their connection to vascular MS research. Are these treatments cures? For some, they can stop MS disease progression. But MS is a wildly variable disease, and these treatments do not work for all. Does that fact invalidate the research? I don't think so. But I'm not a neurologist.<br />
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I had hoped people would recognize that venoplasty was not being called a "cure" for MS. It was simply another treatment--like exercise, diet, lifestyle, meditation, sleep, etc-- which could potentially improve cerebral blood flow, heal the endothelial layer of blood vessels, maintain gray matter and slow MS disease progression. No surprise, neurologists went ahead with ill-conceived and flawed studies, in order to debunk Dr. Zamboni and shut it all down. Better to kill the theory and debunk the messenger, than attempt to understand the connection.<br />
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Even after all of this unnecessary drama, it makes me happy to see people wth MS sharing their knowledge and encouraging each other on social media. People with MS are healthier today because of this collective knowledge. I still have hope that the ISNVD will further define the connection between the larger veins, cerebral perfusion and MS, and how to treat CCSVI. <a href="https://isnvd.org/">ISNVD website</a> And maybe someday, neurologists will admit that the engorged central vein-- first seen with a microscope in 1863 and now part of an MRI MS diagnosis-- is important to understand, even if it's only a lowly blood vessel.<br />
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I can hope,<br />
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Joan<br />
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Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-69374829817851120972018-05-05T10:46:00.002-07:002018-05-06T10:11:57.569-07:00Hope in China-- a new clinical trial Over the past couple of years, I have been following a group of Chinese researchers from the Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders. This group is using stents to repair slowed jugular venous flow, reduce collateral veins, improve intracranial hypertension and cerebral perfusion in a variety of patients. <br />
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My interest in this area comes from the fact that my husband was treated this same way in 2009. His benefits from jugular stenting continue, as he has had no new white matter lesions. He sleeps soundly, dreams, and wakes refreshed. He had a huge reduction in headache. His visual loss has ceased. His fatigue has been reduced. His gray matter atrophy has been reversed. He has had no MS progression in eleven years.<br />
Here is the publication on his treatment at Stanford<br />
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4164629/">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4164629/</a><br />
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The Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders was founded in 2012, in the hopes of using new technologies to prevent and repair neurological disorders. The group of neurosurgeons have published that jugular venous stenting is a safe and effective procedure, which is helping a variety of patients with neurological disorders.<br />
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They have seen intracranial hypertension, headache, visual disturbances, and tinnitus improved in 15 patients who had stents implanted in their jugular veins.<br />
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29114973">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29114973</a><br />
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Because of their preliminary study, <b>this group is now undertaking a randomized clinical trial in Beijng with 60 participants, utilizing stents in jugular veins of patients with jugular vein stenosis. </b> <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03373292">link to clinical trial</a><br />
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Here is what they will be looking at over the course of one year. (Please notice how the secondary outcome measures are similar to measures used in Multiple Sclerosis clinical trials--and similar to my own husband's benefits from treatment.)<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="term" data-term="primary outcome measure" style="background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 4px 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #112e51; cursor: pointer; display: inline; transition: , 0.2s , , 0.2s , , 0.2s;" tabindex="0" title="Show definition"><b>Primary Outcome Measures <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-info-circle term" data-term="primary outcome measure" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 4px 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1; text-rendering: auto; transition: background-color, 0.2s, box-shadow, 0.2s, color, 0.2s;" tabindex="0" title="Show definition"></span></b></span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Correction of internal jugular vein stenosis (IJVS) and abnormal collateral veins </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[Time Frame: baseline, 1, 6 and 12 months ]</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The status of internal jugular vein blood flow and collateral veins will be evaluated by imaging modalities, mainly including: Jugular Vein Doppler Ultrasound, Magnetic Resonance Venography (MRV), Computed Tomography Venography (CTV) and Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span class="term" data-term="secondary outcome measure" style="background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 4px 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #112e51; cursor: pointer; display: inline; transition: , 0.2s , , 0.2s , , 0.2s;" tabindex="0" title="Show definition">Secondary Outcome Measures <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-info-circle term" data-term="secondary outcome measure" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 4px 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1; text-rendering: auto; transition: background-color, 0.2s, box-shadow, 0.2s, color, 0.2s;" tabindex="0" title="Show definition"></span></span> :</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The evaluation of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) pressure </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[Time Frame: baseline, immediately post-stenting, within 1 month ]</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">CSF pressure will be assessed by lumbar puncture</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The evaluation of headache </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[Time Frame: baseline, within 1, 6 and 12 months ]</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The intensity of headache will be assessed with the Headache Impact Test-6 (HIT-6 </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The evaluation of tinnitus [ Time Frame: baseline, within 1, 6 and 12 months ]</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The severity of tinnitus will be assessed by the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory Questionnaire (THIQ)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The evaluation of the severity of papilledema and other ophthalmological conditions </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[ Time Frame: baseline, within 1, 6 and 12 months ]</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The severity of papilledema will be assessed based on Frisén papilledema grade (FPG) criteria; the assessment of other ophthalmological conditions including visual acuity, visual field, and fundus etc. will be based on visual acuity chart, visual fields picture, and optical coherence tomography (OCT) etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Changes in cerebral white matter (WM) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[ Time Frame: baseline, within 12 months ]</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The characteristics of WM will be evaluated by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The evaluation of cognitive function [ Time Frame: baseline, within 12 months ]</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Cognitive function will be assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and/or the Modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS-M).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The evaluation of mental status [ Time Frame: baseline, within 12 months ]</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mental status will be assessed with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The HADS score ranges between 0 and 21 for either anxiety or depression. A cut-off point of 8/21 is indicated for anxiety or depression.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The evaluation of sleeping status [ Time Frame: baseline, within 12 months ]</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sleeping status will be assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and/or the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS). The PSQI score provides an overall score ranging from 0 to 21, where a cut-off score of ≤5 denotes a healthier sleep quality. The AIS score provides an overall score ranging from 0 to 24, where a cut-off score of <6 denotes a healthier sleep quality.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The extent of disability or dependence in the daily activities </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[ Time Frame: baseline, within 12 months ]</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The extent of disability will be assessed by the modified Rankin Scale (mRS). (Score 0-no symptoms; score 1-no significant disability; score 2-slight disability; score 3-moderate disability; score 4-moderately severe disability; score 5-severe disability; score 6-dead.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, here is a brand new published review from this same group, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Understanding jugular venous outflow disturbance."</span><br />
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29687619">link</a><br />
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I have read the full paper, and am confidant that this research group knows what they are doing, what they are looking for, and what the stakes are. By removing Multiple Sclerosis from the equation, they will be able to proceed, without the interference of pharmaceutical interest--which has daunted the study of CCSVI. <br />
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Thanks to the Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders for taking on this very important study. <br />
<br />
Joan<br />
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<br />Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-87884732292241655542018-02-05T08:43:00.000-08:002018-02-05T08:47:26.154-08:00The brain contains 400 miles of blood vessels.... A year after Jeff was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, I wrote several university researchers regarding MS as a vascular disease of endothelial dysfunction. One of these researchers was at my alma mater, the University of Rochester. I had first read about his work in our alumni newsletters, and later on pub med. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/%C2%A0https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=berislav+v+zlokovic">link </a><br />
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Berislav Zlokovic was initially inspired to understand the blood brain barrier's role in neurodegeneration after losing a dear friend to ALS. <br />
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<i><b>"The vascular system is crucial to health -- it's how oxygen and other nutrients are delivered to cells, and how toxins are removed," said Zlokovic, who is professor of Neurosurgery and Neurology and director of the Center for Neurodegenerative and Vascular Brain Disorders. "Any damage to the vascular system is a serious threat to the organism. It's clear now that the vascular system is certainly involved in the development of ALS."</b></i></div>
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<b><i>Zlokovic first began doing research on the disease in 2004, when a former classmate from medical school who had been diagnosed with ALS and was looking for new treatments contacted him. By the time his friend died two years later, Zlokovic was well underway in studies investigating the possible role of the vascular system.</i> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/%C2%A0https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080407101842.htm">link</a></b></div>
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He has been one of the premiere researchers looking at how the vasculature is implicated in the breakdown of tight junctions in all diseases of neurodegeneration. I wrote to him about Dr. Swank's prior research on capillary fragility, and how I thought it made sense when observing the petechial bleeding on my husband's legs, his enhancing MS lesions on MRI, and the possibilty that the cause of both was systemic endothelial dysfunction.<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">(Swank RL. Subcutaneous hemorrhages in multiple sclerosis. Neurology. 1958; 8: 497-498.)</span><br />
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Dr. Zlokovic did not reply to my intial inquiry, but we did eventually connect after his presentation at the ISNVD as the keynote speaker, 2011 in Bologna. He soon left the U of R for the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. <br />
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I was thrilled to see that his lab has recently received $25 million in grants to study how leaky blood vessels in the brain contribute to Alzheimer's Disease. <a href="https://keck.usc.edu/zlokovic-receives-nearly-25-million-to-study-alzheimers-disease/">link</a><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><b><a href="http://keck.usc.edu/faculty/berislav-v-zlokovic/" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;">Berislav Zlokovic, MD, PhD</a><span style="font-family: "open sans" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">, a pioneer of the theory that fixing the brain’s leaky blood vessels will prevent Alzheimer’s disease, has received four grants totaling up to $24.9 million over five years.</span></b></span><br />
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<b>The funding allows Zlokovic, director of the <a href="http://keck.usc.edu/zilkha" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute</a>, to attack from different fronts the blood-brain barrier, a gatekeeper that prevents toxic substances from entering the brain.</b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "open sans" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">“The brain contains 400 miles of blood vessels that can stretch from Los Angeles to San Francisco,” said Zlokovic, chair and professor of</span><span style="font-family: "open sans" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><a href="http://keck.usc.edu/physiology-and-biophysics" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Open Sans", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;">physiology and biophysics</a><span style="font-family: "open sans" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "open sans" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “If there is a leak along this vascular tube and the pothole is, for example, near the hippocampus — the center of learning and memory — that can contribute to the development of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. We can delay the onset or slow the progression of Alzheimer’s if we are able to fix leaky capillaries when they first start, some 10 to 15 years before Alzheimer’s symptoms even surface.”</span></b><br />
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But at the same time, I'm deeply saddened by the realization that we are still in this same place----sixty years after Dr. Swank first noted leaky capillaries and petechial rashes in people with MS and successfully treated this issue in many patients with diet and exercise. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/%C2%A0http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2014/03/blood-matters.html">link</a> Thirty years after Dr. Franz Schelling discovered the venous connection to MS and inspired Dr. Paolo Zamboni to look at jugular reflux in people with MS. <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/ms-vein-theory-has-roots-in-rejected-research-1.500720">link</a> It sometimes feels like an endless cycle of discovery and amnesia, as researchers uncover, and then willfully bury or forget the vascular connection to diseases of neurodegeneration.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "open sans" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>“The blood-brain barrier’s leaks allow many blood-derived toxic products, cells and pathogens to enter the brain and directly damage brain circuits involved in memory and learning,” Zlokovic said. “Additionally, bad proteins that normally are ejected from the brain, such as beta-amyloid, have to struggle against the flow of traffic. This situation can eventually lead to ‘a second hit’: Beta-amyloids and tau tangles remain in the brain and cause damage that become evident years later.”</b></span><br />
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<b>The research will determine the structure of the perivascular space, how cerebral brain fluid reacts to changes in brain equilibrium and blood-brain barrier leakage. The ultimate goal is to identify therapeutic targets for the treatment of small vessel disease of the brain, which may contribute to cognitive impairment.</b></div>
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I honestly hope Dr. Zlokovic and his team find new therapeutic targets. They sure have a bunch of money to do so. However, researchers might do well to also look at mechanistic issues behind these leaky blood vessels. Venous hypertension and CCSVI were contributing to the breakdown of my husband's blood brain barrier. Venoplasty to repair his jugular veins resulted in disease reversal for him--with no new lesions and a reversal of gray matter atrophy. The spots on his legs, and the spots in his brain were connected. Diet and exercise have continued this virtuous cycle of healthy cerebral perfusion, shear stress, and endothelial cell health. </div>
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Don't wait for this ongoing research loop to end with some new blockbuster drug. There are things you can do today, to help heal your endothelial cells and limit the breakdown of capillaries. <br />
Promise. <a href="http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-endothelial-health-program-8-years.html">link</a><br />
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<br />
Joan<br />
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<img alt="Image result for blood brain barrier capillary endothelial cells" class="irc_mi" height="403" src="https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S2213158214001387-gr1.jpg" style="margin-top: 112px;" width="640" />Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-76406108956170748662018-01-21T09:44:00.002-08:002018-01-21T09:47:53.510-08:00Vascular factors affect MS disease progressionI know, I know. You'd think it would be obvious by now that the heart and brain are connected, and that vascular health has an impact on MS disease process. But in the 10+ years I've been following MS research, it seems as though researchers are continually surprised when they learn that cardiovascular comorbidities have an impact on MS progression.<br />
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There are two new research papers from Canadian MS specialists, published in the AAN journal Neurology, which have found a connection between blood flow and MS progression. I am thankful to know that Dr. Helen Tremlett's team continues to look at this connectivity--- but frustrated by the lack of recommendations being made by MS Societies and MS specialists regarding lifestyle interventions like nutrition and exercise. There is still a huge disconnect.<br />
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The first paper found that people with hyperlipidemia (which is an abnormally high content of fats in the blood---measured by LDL cholesterol numbers) and migraine had an increased MS relapse rate. <br />
<a href="http://n.neurology.org/content/early/2017/11/08/WNL.0000000000004716.short">Link to "Comorbidity increases the risk of relapse in MS"</a><br />
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The second paper also looks at cardiovascular comorbidities, like ischemic heart disease and found a link in disease progression and disability. <a href="http://n.neurology.org/content/early/2018/01/03/WNL.0000000000004885">link to "Effects of physical comorbidities on disability progression in MS"</a><br />
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The Centre for Brain Heath in Canada has recently published an article on this research, in which Dr. Tremlett says---<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>"Our findings suggest that if you could alter the trajectory of a comorbidity, you may be able to improve outcomes in MS.”</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.centreforbrainhealth.ca/news/2018/01/08/comorbidities-affect-ms-relapse-risk-and-disability-progression">link</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And how do patients reduce heart disease, lower their LDL cholesterol, improve vascular comorbidities? Well, no surprise here. Researchers don't want to say, they would like funding for more research.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“This suggests that we may need to take a more holistic approach to managing MS and related comorbidities,” says Dr. Zhang. “Effective treatment for each comorbidity may reduce disability risk. We need more research to identify the most appropriate treatment approach for each comorbidity in MS.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Information for the disability progression study came from health administrative data across Canada, with nearly 30 years of anonymized clinical records providing detailed insight into the relationship between comorbidities present before and after MS symptom onset and disability progression over time.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Dr. Roy Swank published on ALL of this in the 1950s.</b> And he was routinely mocked by MS neurologists who felt that MS was an autoimmune disease which could not be altered by diet and lifestyle. But they were wrong. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_1484682330"> </a></span><a href="http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2015/04/an-apology-letter-to-dr-roy-swank-from.html">link</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Don't let another 60 years go by. Take control of your life, your own health today. Eat a heart healthy, colorful diet full of plants, move as much as you can, get UV rays, decrease stress and increase laughter. Get good sleep, don't smoke, stay involved in community and learning. Because science shows that these things can make a difference in your MS disease process. </span><a href="http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-endothelial-health-program-8-years.html">link</a></div>
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The heart brain connection is real.</div>
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Joan</div>
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Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-45747032498888076792018-01-07T10:26:00.001-08:002018-01-07T10:43:09.922-08:00New research on cholesterol clearance and MSLong-time readers of this blog will remember a variety of posts on fats, lipids, cholesterol and inflammation in multiple sclerosis. It was Dr. Roy Swank's research on ingestion of animal fats and the changes to the vascular system which first interested me in this connection. Once again, what is old in MS research is new.<br />
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Research published this week from the Technical University of Munich explores how the <b>degredation of myelin leaves a destructive cholesterol residue in the brain, which increases an inflammatory response and blocks myelin regeneration.</b> It appears that with age, the process of transporting cholesterol out of the brain becomes less efficient. (Important to state that this research was done on a mouse model of MS.)<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>"Myelin contains a very high amount of cholesterol," explains Prof. Simons. "When myelin is destroyed, the cholesterol released has to be removed from the tissue." This is performed by microglia and macrophages, also referred to as phagocytes. They take up the damaged myelin, digest it and transport the non-digestible remainder, such as cholesterol, out of the cell by transport molecules. However, if too much cholesterol accumulates in the cell, cholesterol can forms needle-shaped crystals, which cause damage the cell. Using a mouse model, Simons and his team showed the devastating impact of the crystalline cholesterol: It activates the so-called inflammasome in phagocytes, which results in the release of inflammatory mediators, attracting even more immune cells. <b>"Very similar problems occur in arteriosclerosis, however not in the brain tissue, but in blood vessels," says Simons.</b></i></span><br />
<a href="https://www.tum.de/en/about-tum/news/press-releases/detail/article/34392/">link</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;">Although cholesterol</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">synthesis</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"> in the brain is considered a different process than </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">cholesterol synthesis in the rest of the body, <b>lower</b> <b>plasma levels of HDL cholesterol have been found to be related to MS. </b>Cardiovascular researchers have been looking at this fact, in relation to the heart brain connection. </span><br />
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<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 16px;">HDL plasma levels have also been associated with other neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS).</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "source sans pro" , sans-serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: -0.75em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="link link-ref link-reveal xref-bibr" data-open="CVU148C74" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" reveal-id="CVU148C74" style="-webkit-hyphens: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #006fb7; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;">74</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 16px;"> Patients in the acute phase MS have been reported to have lower HDL-C levels compared with those in the remission phase, and they show a higher probability of developing acute inflammatory lesions (assessed by MRI).</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "source sans pro" , sans-serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: -0.75em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="link link-ref link-reveal xref-bibr" data-open="CVU148C74 CVU148C76" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" reveal-id="CVU148C74 CVU148C76" style="-webkit-hyphens: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #006fb7; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;">74–76</a></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "source sans pro" , sans-serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: -0.75em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="link link-ref link-reveal xref-bibr" data-open="CVU148C78" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" reveal-id="CVU148C78" style="-webkit-hyphens: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #006fb7; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;">8</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "merriweather" , serif; font-size: 16px;"> Moreover, HDL inhibits cytokine-induced expression of adhesion molecules in endothelial cells.</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "source sans pro" , sans-serif; font-size: 0.75em; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: -0.75em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="link link-ref link-reveal xref-bibr" data-open="CVU148C72" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" reveal-id="CVU148C72" style="-webkit-hyphens: auto; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #006fb7; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;">72</a></span></i><br />
<a href="https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/article/103/3/405/2931058">link</a><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Why are HDL levels important? Because HDL, also known as "good cholesterol", contains the <b>transport protein ApoA1</b>---needed to take cholesterol out of the blood and tissue.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Here's more research on low levels of ApoA1 found to be linked to MS severity. The lower HDL</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">ApoA1 plasma levels, the more severe the disease. </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>ApoA1 was reduced by approximately 25% in patients with relapsing-remitting MS, 50% in those with secondary progressive MS, and 75% in patients with primary progressive MS, the most severe form of the disease</b>. </i><a href="https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/814798">link</a><br />
<br />
Here's a whole blog post from 2013 on "Good" cholesterol and your brain<br />
<a href="http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2013/11/good-cholesterol-and-brain.html">link</a><br />
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<div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "stixgeneral" , serif; font-size: 15.999099731445313px;">While we wait for researchers to create their cholesterol transport block buster MS drug, or to repurpose things like statins (please, don't go there, so many side effects!)---there are things pwMS can do today, to encourage this process in their own bodies, by increasing your HDL levels with lifestyle.</span></div>
<div class="p p-first" id="__p23" style="margin-bottom: 0.6923em; margin-top: 0.6923em;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">1. Don't smoke. Quitting smoking will increase good cholesterol by 10%</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">2. Lose weight. Extra weight depletes HDL.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">3. Exercise. Within 2 months of regular exercise, you can increase your HDL by 5%</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">4. Choose healthier fats for your diet. Avoid transfats and saturated animal fats. Choose omega 3s and monosaturated fats found in nuts, olive oil, and fish</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">5. Add fiber to your diet--lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes and oats</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">6. Limit alcohol consumption.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">
<a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/hdl-cholesterol/art-20046388?pg=2"><span style="font-family: inherit;">link</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">7. Check your vitamin D, magnesium, calcium and zinc levels--make sure they are in balance.</span><br />
<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7608827"><span style="font-family: inherit;">link</span></a></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Keep an eye on the latest MS research. </span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It continues to affirm the heart-brain connection, and the importance of living a vascularly healthy life.</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Be well,</span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Joan</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="Image result for cholesterol clearance multiple sclerosis" class="irc_mi" height="400" src="https://cdn.technologynetworks.com/tn/images/thumbnails/square/crystals-of-cholesterol-cause-multiple-sclerosis-by-preventing-regeneration-295892.png" style="margin-top: 52px;" width="400" /></span><br />
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Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-8218874127876645862017-12-22T14:37:00.003-08:002017-12-24T16:12:08.813-08:00Multiple Sclerosis is a Spectrum DisorderDr. Gayatri Devi is a neurologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in NYC. She has recently published a book called "The Spectrum of Hope: An Optomistic and New Approach to Alzheimer's Disease and other Dementias." <br />
<br />
Dr. Devi is redefining Alzheimer's as a spectrum disorder, meaning that this diagnosis is not the same for every patient, that each patient will have a unique experience, and that there is much which can be done to empower the individual patient to reclaim their health. A diagnosis of Alzheimer's is not "one size fits all." And she attacks the biggest myth---that all people with an Alzheimer's diagnosis will end up incompetent in a nursing home. She says this simply isn't true.<br />
<br />
In this new book, Dr. Devi outlines ways to treat and arrest Alzheimer's progression through nutrition, exercise, lifestyle and medication. She asserts that 60% of all Alzheimer's cases are preventable, and that science has shown that less than 5% of Alzheimer's cases are genetic. <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/neurologist-on-alzheimers-spectrum-treatment-myths/">link </a><br />
<br />
I like Dr. Devi. A lot. She is positive, informed and uses real data and science to back up her claims. She has worked with Alzheimer's patients for 23 years, and she wants to dispel the myths about the disease.<br />
<br />
Dr. Stuart Zola of Emory University has been making the same case. He has been advocating for a spectrum disorder classification for Alzheimer's Disease and has specific recommendations for treatment.<br />
<a href="https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Office-of-the-Provost-ebook-Sept-17-WEB.pdf">link</a><br />
<br />
His most important lifestyle interventions are the exact same as Dr. Devi's. <br />
1. Heart Healthy Diet<br />
2. Stress Reduction<br />
3. Exercise<br />
4. Sleep<br />
5. Cognitive training--use it, or lose it.<br />
<br />
Does this list look familiar to anyone else? <br />
<br />
I would submit that the exact same case could be made for Multiple Sclerosis. <br />
MS is a neurodegenerative disease which is not genetic. MS is a vastly different disease in individuals. MS also occurs more commonly in women. MS progression can be halted. MS is a spectrum disorder. <br />
<br />
Then why aren't MS neurologists using this same language in discussing treatment and lifestyle intervention with their patients? <br />
<br />
The difference is that MS has a $20 billion dollar a year drug industry attached to the diagnosis. And it is important for MS specialists to maintain the narrative that MS is a destructive, incurable autoimmune disease which must be attacked at the very beginning with immune modulating drugs. No matter the disease presentation, the age of the patient, the level of neurologic damage---the narrative has been that ONLY drug intervention can arrest the MS disease process. And this narrative has been pushed and publicized by MS Societies, MS advocacy groups, MS blogs, MS groups (which are sponsored by pharma) and in the press. There's a lot of money wrapped up in telling this story.<br />
<br />
Watch this Canadian news story from 1989, almost 30 years ago. It will take you 18 minutes, but I believe it is important. The first half is about chemo treatment for MS, the second half is about nutrition.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEnn_AZT-SU&t=693s">Link to 5th Estate MS Story</a><br />
<br />
Notice how the neurologists speak to the MS patient about his wheelchair prognosis "in two years" if he does nothing to treat his MS aggressively. Jeff had a very similar prognosis. He was having trouble walking, was spending the day on the couch, exhausted. Just like Ron, he was told to "do everything he could" to fight his MS. But that "everything" only included drug therapy. Listen to how Ron accepts the risks of cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan), a cancer treatment with very serious side effects, which would eventually be shown to be ineffective as a monotherapy for MS. <a href="https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/ectrims/42065">link</a><br />
<br />
At 10 minutes in we meet another person with MS. She has been part of Dr. Roy Swank's 35 year observational study of a low fat diet. Dr. Swank's patients are still walking, working, living, remaining stable. Dr. Swank gave his patients hope of disease reversal, of remaining mobile. His program is simple. Avoid fats from meat and dairy, eat mostly plants. What we would call a "heart healthy diet."<br />
<br />
The MS neurologist speaks for the medical profession, saying diet has "little to no role" in the care of MS patients. And this is the position of the MS Society today---even though the science shows that the diet has made a difference. Again, this was 30 years ago. And it is still true---as the MS Society threatens to sue Matt Embry for speaking out about true MS Hope, and a program based on the Swank Diet. <a href="http://filmmakermagazine.com/103222-fighting-ms-and-big-pharma-matt-embry-on-living-proof/">link</a><br />
<br />
We need to reframe the dialogue. MS is a spectrum disorder. It can be treated with lifestyle, nutrition, and exercise. A healthy heart and vasculature can protect the brain. Yes, MS will be different for every individual, medications may help some--and not all will recover. But that does not negate the very real improvements made for many. <br />
<br />
Push back against the pharma narrative. <br />
Write your own story,<br />
<br />
Joan<br />
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<br />Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-54940980260889271342017-11-18T09:59:00.001-08:002017-11-19T09:33:19.599-08:00Exciting New MS Treatment!<br />
NEWS RELEASE<br />
<br />
A new MS drug appears to alter fluid dynamics and repair the blood brain barrier!<br />
<b>In fact, 63% of the patients treated with Perfuza (toxicmuzab) had no new or enhancing MS lesions at 12 months! </b> In light of recent discoveries of the brain's lymphatic vessels and the connection to venous flow, we are thrilled to be able to offer MS patients a drug treatment which may be addressing CNS fluid dynamics.<br />
<br />
Here's more on the impressive results of Perfuza from a recent publication in JAMA---<br />
<br />
<i>We found a reduction in the mean number of new brain lesions (corresponding to more lesion- free patients) in the toxicumab group compared with the placebo group at 6 to 12 months. <b>The delayed and positive effect on the magnetic resonance biomarker suggests that toxicumab could affect the dynamic of the blood-brain barrier.</b><br /><br />Gadolinium enhancement is a marker of damage to the blood-brain barrier, whose time course depends on lymphatic drainage18 and hence on venous drainage from the skull.19 Previous studies have reported that venous pressure is lowered3 and cerebrospinal fluid dynamics is improved20 after taking toxicmuzab, thereby favoring the drainage of cerebro spinal fluid into the dural veins, which depends on a pressure gradient between the subarachnoid spaces and dural veins.21,22 <br /><br />Another study23 reported that white matter lesion load was inversely correlated with reduced cerebrospinal fluid dynamics, as measured by MRI. In addition, flow improvement through the internal jugular veins owing to toxicmuzab has been reported to improve brain perfusion in patients with RRMS.21 It has also been reported that the development of a new MS plaque was preceded by sustained MRI-detected hypoperfusion before the plaque was identified on MRI.24,25 </i><br />
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<a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2664001#editorial-comment-tab">link</a><br />
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Incredible, right??? Finally. A drug which can potentially affect the blood brain barrier!<br />
Perfuza (toxicmuzab) may be the greatest money-making MS drug in history.<br />
Projections are now at 2-3 billion for 2018 alone. <br />
<br />
<br />
Only kidding.<br />
<br />
The paper I'm quoting from, verbatim, is the recent <b>JAMA review of angioplasty for CCSVI from the Brave Dreams clinical trial. </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Just replace my made up block buster drug Perfuza (toxicmuzab) with <b>angioplasty to restore venous flow. </b>And then, write a conclusion and snarky editorial that says that we should not pursue this treatment any further, and that CCSVI research is over.<br />
<br />
<b>Even though the conclusion of the paper says that over half of patients saw benefit in cerebral blood flow from CCSVI treatment.</b><br />
<br />
The editorial which goes along with this publication is actually incorrect. The author of the editorial, Dr. Ari Green***, claims that there was absolutely no benefit in those treated for CCSVI, that there was no reduction in new lesions. Here, read the editorial for yourselves, and read the paper again, and tell me---isn't this incorrect?<br />
<a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2664000">https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaneurology/fullarticle/2664000</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; text-align: justify;">***Dr. Green has received personal compensation for activities with Inception Sciences, Mylan Pharma, Medimmune, and Bionure. Dr. Green has received personal compensation for serving on the board of Inception Sciences. Dr. Green holds stock and/or stock options in Inception Sciences. Dr. Green has received research support from Inception Sciences, Biogen, and Novartis. <a href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/16_Supplement/S50.003">link</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dr. Green's Inception Sciences Company owns the patent for an antihistamine-like molecule thought to remyelinate neurons. I wrote about the absurd hype regarding a 1.3% improvement in visual acuity here: </span><a href="http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2017/10/an-otc-antihistamine-drug-remyelinates.html">link</a></span><br />
<br />
To recap---this published paper from the neurologists of the Brave Dreams trial just proved, conclusively-<br />
1. CCSVI is a real condition in people with MS. <br />
2. There are a variety of venous malformations. There were patients with closed jugular valves, refluxing blood flow, and hypoperfusion. <br />
3. Venoplasty was able to restore normal flow in 54% of the patients. Not all malformations can be treated with PTA alone.<br />
4. 63% of treated patients had no new MS lesions on MRI at 12 months. <br />
Doesn't this count for something? At least additional study?<br />
<br />
What is real news? What is fake news?<br />
Is this simply spin or is it something darker?<br />
<br />
<b>If a room full of neurologists look at the results from CCSVI venoplasty and conclude </b><br />
<b>"</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "guardian textsans web" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The delayed effect of venous PTA 6 months after the procedure on the magnetic resonance biomarker suggests a possibility that PTA may produce benefit for a</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "guardian textsans web" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><b class="" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Guardian TextSans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">subgroup of patients with MS. This should be further analyzed and investigated." </b><br />
<b class="" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Guardian TextSans Web", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></b>
<b>yet still write a conclusion and editorial suggesting CCSVI research be stopped--- what is reality?</b><br />
<br />
Please, tell me. Honestly, I'm flummoxed.<br />
<br />
More ahead.<br />
Joan <br />
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Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-58909227169869734152017-11-16T10:33:00.001-08:002017-11-16T15:33:36.588-08:00MS Vascular Research Round UpI wanted to do a summary post on the most recent research into the vascular connection to Multiple Sclerosis, prior to Dr. Zamboni's presentation at the Veith Conference in New York City this Saturday. CCSVI Alliance will be hosting a patient friendly "Facebook Live Event" on November 18th with Dr. Zamboni. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/284990911991167/">Link to Facebook Event Page</a><br />
<br />
Since Dr. Zamboni first published his pilot study in 2008 of MS patients treated with venoplasty to relieve slowed venous drainage, or a condition he named Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency, the landscape of neuroscience has changed drastically. <br />
<br />
In fact, <b>we now know that the brain has a cleansing system connected to the peripheral lymphatic system, which depends on timely and efficient drainage. </b><br />
<br />
Here's a BBC radio presentation on the importance of the newly discovered <b>Brain's Drain.</b><br />
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csty7t">link</a><br />
As the science reporter states in this interview,<br />
"Making sure a drainage system is flowing properly could be really important for the health of the brain."<br />
<br />
We are learning more about how the brain clears proteins, metabolites, immune cells and waste---while awake and asleep. The jugular veins are the major collection area for this process--as this is where the brain's lymph, CSF and deoxygenated blood converge<b>. </b> <a href="http://teachmeanatomy.info/neuro/vessels/venous-drainage/%C2%A0">link</a><br />
<br />
If researchers want to investigate a method of action (MOA) as to how venoplasty to relieve slowed venous drainage and repair of jugular defects has helped people with MS, they might consider the following:<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b>1. Corroboration of the brain's lymphatic system in humans.</b></h3>
NIH researchers find lymphatic vessels in humans, and confirm prior research from the Kipnis Lab at University of Virginia.<br />
<br />
<i style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">To confirm that the vessels were lymphatic vessels, the team used a dye that’s too big to leak out of blood vessels. MRI scans from two subjects with this dye showed brightly lit blood vessels in the dura, but not the suspected lymphatic vessels. These results suggested that the first dye leaked out of the blood vessels into surrounding lymphatic vessels.</i><br />
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; margin-bottom: 1.2em;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The researchers also looked at the suspected lymphatic vessels in autopsied human and monkey brain tissue. They found that the vessels contained specific cells and protein markers that are unique to lymphatic vessels and distinguished them from blood vessels. These findings suggest the lymphatic system is a common feature of mammalian brains.</i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“We literally watched people’s brains drain fluid into these vessels,” Reich says. “We hope that our results provide new insights to a variety of neurological disorders.”</i></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“These results could fundamentally change the way we think about how the brain and immune system interrelate,” says NINDS Director Dr. Walter J. Koroshetz</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>.</i></span><a href="https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/brain-cleaning-system-uses-lymphatic-vessels">link</a></div>
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<b>2. Fibrinogen, a blood clotting protein, initiates myelin loss and inhibits remyelination in MS.</b></h3>
The Gladstone Lab confirms that all it takes to initiate demyelination in the brain is a drop of blood on brain tissue. The clotting protein, fibrinogen, which increases when the coagulation cascade is initiated during a break in the blood brain barrier, is highly destructive to myelin. Not only does fibrinogen damage myelin, it blocks the body's stem cell mechanism of myelin repair. <br />
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If the brain is unable to drain in a timely and efficient manner, venous hypertension and small breaks in the blood brain barrier may occur. These cerebral microbleeds have been documented on 7T MRI in MS patients. <br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Akassoglou has spent much of her career studying the role of the blood-brain barrier and fibrinogen in neurological diseases. She previously showed that when blood leaks into the brain, fibrinogen causes inflammation by acting in brain immune cells, which can lead to brain damage.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>In the new study, Akassoglou and her team uncovered another, yet unexpected effect of blood leaking into the brain.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“We found that fibrinogen stops adult stem cells from transforming into the mature cells that produce myelin,” explained first author of the study Mark Petersen, MD, a visiting scientist in Akassoglou’s laboratory and an assistant adjunct professor of pediatrics at UCSF. “This blockade could be harmful for regeneration in the brain.” </i></span><a href="https://gladstone.org/about-us/press-releases/blood-clotting-protein-prevents-repair-brain">link</a></div>
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<b>3. M (motion) Mode ultrasound shows a higher rate of jugular valve irregularities in people with MS, compared to healthy controls.</b></h3>
Researchers noted, using motion mode ultrasound which visualizes blood flow and valve activity, that more people with MS (82%) have fixed, or immobile jugular vein valves. 98% of healthy controls had jugular valves which opened and closed with blood flow. This created brain outflow abnormalities. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28982329">link</a><br />
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<b>4. </b> <b>Endothelial cells are the interface between lymphatic, immune and vascular system of the CNS. </b></h3>
Researchers are probing further into the importance of vascular endothelial cell health, in light of the new discovery of brain's lymphatic network.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="background-color: white;">The </span><span class="highlight">lymphatic</span><span style="background-color: white;"> network linking the CNS to draining lymph nodes may contribute to the inflammatory reaction occurring in </span><span class="highlight">multiple sclerosis</span><span style="background-color: white;"> (MS). The abundance and strategic positioning of endothelial cells at the blood-brain barrier level most likely endow them with an important role in controlling local adaptive immune responses, rendering them potential therapeutic targets in neuro-inflammatory such as MS.</span></i></span><br />
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28323646">link</a><br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Disruption of the blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a defining and early feature of multiple sclerosis (MS) that directly damages the central nervous system (CNS), promotes immune cell infiltration, and influences clinical outcomes. <b>There is an urgent need for new therapies to protect and restore BBB function, either by strengthening endothelial tight junctions or suppressing endothelial vesicular transcytosis. </b></span></i><a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/114/7/E1168.abstract">link</a><br />
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<br /><b>5. People with MS have cervical lymph nodes which are twice the size of normal people, whether or not they are on immune modulating MS drugs. </b></h3>
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<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">As the cervical lymph nodes are the collection area for the brain's newly discovered lymphatic system, and these nodes drain into the junction of the jugular and subclavian veins, this anomoly needs to be further investigated.</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="background-color: white;">Cervical lymph nodes are the first drainage stations of the brain and therefore play a key role in neuroinflammatory disorders such as </span><span class="highlight">multiple sclerosis</span><span style="background-color: white;">. </span><span style="background-color: white;">The abnormalities shown by ultrasound in cervical lymph nodes are related to deep ones and independent of the ongoing treatment, suggesting a relationship between </span><span class="highlight">lymphatic</span><span style="background-color: white;"> drainage and disease pathology.</span></i></span><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i> </i></span> </b><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29116601">link</a><br />
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As we can all see, understanding the vascular connection to MS is now expanding in research labs around the globe. The era of the EAE mouse model of MS as an auto-immune disease is being replaced by an understanding of MS as an inflammatory disease related to cerebral perfusion, the vascular endothelium and lymph system. <br />
And yes, venous function remains integral to this understanding.<br />
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Onward,<br />
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Joan<br />
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<br />Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-49546415664117328382017-10-25T11:13:00.001-07:002017-11-04T14:04:37.290-07:00Setting the record straightI want to simply state some facts for my readers. Because if I don't, journalists and bloggers will continue to create a narrative of the kooky singing wife, who found some crazy researcher online and led the world on a goose chase. And that's not true. And it's really hurtful. <br />
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<b>Some factual, documented history:</b><br />
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1. I believed there was a <b>vascular connection </b>to my husband's MS diagnosis from day one. That would be March 23, 2007, the day we got his serum results from the doctor and I saw so many numbers that were way out of normal range. Coincidently, my birthday.<br />
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2. Using Jeff's <b>serum</b> results as a point of reference, I went to the library and took out every single book they had on MS, including McAlpine's history of Multiple Sclerosis--which had a section on the long history of the <b>vascular connection.</b> This is where I first read about Dr. Tracy Putnam. <a href="http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2012/06/dr.html">link</a> The pile of textbooks also included Dr. Swank's research. <b>Dr. Swank </b>wrote about the connection of MS to the blood. He published over 100 research papers on MS. He wrote about capillary fragility, petechiae and hypercoagulation in his MS patients--all of this research rang a lot of bells for me. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=swank+RL+multiple+sclerosis">link</a><br />
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3. I was on a forum called "This is MS" in September 2007. I wrote about Jeff's serum results, hypercoagulation, and postulated on a bunch of research with other people with MS and caretakers. It was a great community, and we shared papers, programs and MS research. <br />
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4. Using pubmed and my local library, I eventually came to the intersection between the vascular and immune system I had been searching for---the endothelium. Using published and peer-reviewed science, I created <b>The Endothelial Health Program</b> for Jeff and shared it on This is MS in the summer of 2008. I saw a connection between many of his vascular issues (petechiae, high Crp levels, hypercoagulation, high liver enzymes), endothelial dysfunction, and his MS diagnosis. We found that by changing his diet to a Swank program, increasing his Vitamin D levels, including cardiovascular exercise, thinning his blood with proleolytic enzymes, getting him out in sunshine, reducing work stress, improving his sleep---he was doing much better, he did not have a relapse and his serum results normalized. <a href="http://ccsvi.org/index.php/helping-myself/endothelial-health">http://ccsvi.org/index.php/helping-myself/endothelial-health</a><br />
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5. I wrote to endothelial researchers at USC and <b>Stanford</b>, asking if they had any knowledge of studies or published research on the function of the endothelium in MS. Both of them e-mailed me back. I began a correspondence with the researcher at Stanford, because he was the most interested in this connection. Here is part of his reply. I have all of the e-mails, if anyone aside from me ever truly wants to get this story correct.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 12px;"><i>"I enjoyed reading your treatise. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 12px;"><i>I quite like the hypothesis that MS is secondary to a derangement of the endothelium of the cerebrovasculature, that results in inflammation and local damage. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 12px;"><i>I am also in agreement with your contention that a functioning endothelium is a major key to health. </i></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 12px;">Furthermore, I agree that diet and exercise are critical for endothelial health."</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 12px;"> </span></i><br />
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6. It would be three months later I would <b>send more research</b> to this doctor. One of the papers was Dr. Zamboni's new publication on CCSVI, which had been shared with me, the "vascular hypothesis gal" on This Is MS. He was fascinated by the research, and suggested further testing for Jeff. Here's part of that e-mail.<br />
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<i> "<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 12px;">You could get more evidence for cerebral venous abnormalities (I would be particularly concerned about venous stenoses) by MR imaging, with attention to the cerebral veins.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 12px;"> "</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">7. We would eventually bring Jeff up to Stanford for <b>TESTING </b>to see if he had any venous abnormalities. It took a few months to schedule, as he was busy composing and we needed to travel from LA to the Bay Area. He was tested in April, 2009. My mistake was that I <b>wrote about all of this online</b>, on the This is MS forum. I should not have done this. It is my one, deep regret. But it is also why I continue to blog and write. Because I feel hugely responsible for what would later happen.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">8. Jeff had serious venous abnormalities, <b>documented on MRV.</b> <a href="http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2015/06/pictures-worth-some-words.html">link</a> He had a 99% stenosis in his left jugular vein and an 80% closure of his right. The doctor we were consulting with felt this was a serious issue for his brain perfusion, and suggested we think about potential treatment. We went home.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
9. After consulting with other physicians, Jeff scheduled his <b>venoplasty treatment</b> for May 2009. He went back up to Stanford and was treated for his venous abnormalities. He had a profound response on the table---he felt as though the "lights came on" after a stent was opened on his left side. He came home and slept soundly, without spasms, for the first time in over a year. He was dreaming again. He also had a terrible headache the first day, and would develop severe shoulder pain from having his accessory nerve pinched by stents. These side effects from the treatment would pass, but it was scary. Again, I wrote about it online.<br />
<br />
10. People read what I wrote, called Stanford, were treated there or tried to get treated elsewhere. The press picked it up, and the rest is pretty well documented. What is<b> never reported correctly is that I didn't force an IR to treat Jeff. </b> <b> We asked him to TEST Jeff for venous abnormalities. When we saw how bad they were, the IR suggested treatment, and we eventually agreed.</b><br />
<br />
<b>I never called venoplasty a cure for MS. </b> I also never meant for people to get hurt, or travel for medical tourism, spend thousands of dollars (as Jeff was covered by our insurance) or most terribly, to die from complications. I certainly didn't want to be labeled the crazed wife who forced an IR to treat her husband. I always said this was only part of living a vascularly healthy life, to encourage healing and strengthen the heart-brain connection. I never used the word cure. I started the Facebook group because I was really concerned with how this research was being discussed as a cure. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/10151195276122211/">link</a> I was also shocked with how vehemently the MS specialists were denying any link to the vasculature. I wanted people to know this was only a treatment, and it might not be right for them. Which is partially why I stayed online. That, and a huge amount of pride, I'm sure. Ego is never a good thing, and I know it complicated this issue.<br />
<br />
But in all honesty, all I wanted were answers for the love of my life. And we hung around because we had hoped this could be helpful to others. But to be continually portrayed as cure seekers, zealots and wingnuts by the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other publications (which will live online ad infinitum) and to have our names linked to false and incomplete reporting is simply too much.<br />
<br />
So, there it is.<br />
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Going for a walk with my love, and our 17 yr. old dog, Angel (another medical anomaly)<br />
Have a nice day,<br />
<br />
Joan<br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span>Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-83335400407921849102017-10-24T17:21:00.001-07:002017-10-31T12:20:29.887-07:00An OTC antihistamine drug remyelinates? Really?Time to get the facts behind the headlines-- as I've seen lots of online reporting regarding a new study out of UCSF on the OTC antihistamine clemastine fumarate and potential remyelination in MS. <a href="https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/887545">link</a> <br /><br />I've been following this research since it was first presented at AAN conference in 2016. <a href="https://www.aan.com/PressRoom/Home/PressRelease/1454">link</a> There was a lot of hype then, and I remember reading the paper and thinking, really? What's the big deal? As we dig further into the study, we learn that there never was any proof of remyelination---this is just a guess on method of action. They didn't actually see any new myelin on brain lesions, they didn't see any evidence of myelination on MRI. So what did they see? There was a very small, almost insignificant, improvement in eye response, using visual evoked potential measurements. (here's how this test works. <a href="https://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/guide/evoked-potential-tests">link</a> )<br /><br /><i>To be included in the study, participants had to have a delay in transmission time beyond 118 milliseconds in at least one eye. During the study, delays were reduced by an average of 1.7 milliseconds in each eye per patient among those who received the antihistamine. </i><br />Wow. That's a 1.4% average improvement. Certainly not a resounding success.<br />It's also not possible to state this improvement is due to remyelination--<br /><br /><i>One of the biggest difficulties in the development of remyelination therapies for MS is the demonstration of remyelination in living patients. Indirect measures, such as improvements in neurophysiological outcomes, such as electroencephalography, evoked potentials, optical coherence tomography, and transcranial magnetic stimulation may suggest, yet not confirm, remyelination (144–148). Functional improvements could indicate remyelination, but could also indicate neuronal plasticity or the spreading of sodium channels into demyelinated internodes, which could also restore conduction in unmyelinated axons</i> (144, 149, 150) <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4674562/">link</a><br /><br />And my thought on the potential method of action? <br /><br />The anti-histamine might actually be reducing endothelial cell permeability, by blocking the histamine receptor. The method of action would be on the vascular endothelium. Which makes sense to me. Even still, it’s not much. <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/107/44/18967.full">link</a><br /><br />Another issue---the major side effect of FATIGUE was reported by most who took the antihistimine. More fatigue? For people with MS? Jeff laughs at this….no way. Not worth it. He won’t take an antihistimine if he has an allergic reaction (cat or pollen), for the same reason.<br /><br />The claim of remyelination and “reversal of MS” is pure conjecture and market hype BS.<br />Want an OTC supplement that has better results and won't leave you fatigued?<br /><br />EGCG (green tea) has as good or better results in VEP, less side effects. Of course, it is harder to make money for drug companies, since you can't patent green tea. <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3585739/">link</a><br /><br /><div>
Here's what the trial investigator claims---<br /><br /><i>“To the best of our knowledge this is the first time a therapy has been able to reverse deficits caused by MS. It’s not a cure, but it’s a first step towards restoring brain function to the millions who are affected by this chronic, debilitating disease,” said the trial’s principal investigator, <a href="https://www.ucsfhealth.org/ari.green">Ari Green</a>, MD, also Debbie and Andy Rachleff Distinguished Professor of Neurology, chief of the Division of Neuroinflammation and Glial Biology, and medical director of the <a href="https://multiplesclerosis.ucsf.edu/">UCSF Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroinflammation Center</a>.</i><br /><br />I would challenge his assertion, and say his knowledge might not be the best. You know what proves myelin repair? Actual remyelination of lesions shown on MRI, a reversal of brain atrophy and lack of MS progression. That's what Jeff has had since venoplasty treatment and following the Endothelial Health Program. And we have proof on MRI. <a href="http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2015/09/celebration.html">link</a><br /></div>
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Here's the research and science behind aspects of Jeff's program--which shows actual remyelination:<br /><br />Vitamin D <a href="http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2015/12/vitamin-d-news-it-boosts-remyelination.html">link</a><br />The brain's plasticity <a href="http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2014/11/how-to-remyelinate-your-own-brain-new.html">link</a><br />Exercise <a href="https://onlinelibrary.ectrims-congress.eu/ectrims/2016/32nd/145893/wee.yong.voluntary.physical.activity.enhances.remyelination.in.mice.after.html?f=m3">link</a><br />Colorful fruits and vegetables, full of antioxidants. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28302008">link</a><br /><br />Read past the headlines, friends.<br />And be well,<br /><br />Joan<br /><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="7tead" data-offset-key="d9lg4-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.11999999731779099px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2238276534410758837.post-14179659521009230062017-07-04T12:44:00.000-07:002017-10-05T18:42:23.558-07:00Interferon β almost doubles the risk of stroke and migraine in MS. Why?An important observational study on long term use of interferon <i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">β</span></i> and increased risk of stroke and migraine in MS was just published by one of my favorite MS researchers, Professor Helen Tremlett at the University of British Columbia. Current interferon beta drugs prescribed for MS are Avonex, Betaseron, and Rebif. <br />
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The complete paper is available here:<br />
<a href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/24/2310.long">Evaluating the Safety of B Interferons in MS</a><br />
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Dr. Tremlett does not represent any drug company or MS treatment. <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #231f20;">Dr. Tremlett</span> </span>simply studies people with MS, to understand disease progression and environmental factors, like gut microbia, vascular commorbidities, liver enzymes, Vitamin D, sun exposure, fatigue and pregnancy. <a href="http://epims.med.ubc.ca/our-team/faculty/helen-tremlett/">link</a></div>
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She has been studying the adverse affects of MS drugs and documenting many things pharmaceutical trials marginalize, or completely ignore. In her publications, she highlights MS DMDs' modest efficacy, and the fact that clinical trials are of short duration and in a highly selected patient group, and do not give us a complete picture of long-term adverse events.<br />
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">The IFN-βs are modestly effective, reducing relapse rates by about one-third and having a beneficial effect on imaging outcomes,</span><sup style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.85em; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a class="xref-bibr" href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/24/2310.long#ref-2" id="xref-ref-2-1" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"> but findings regarding longer-term effects on disability have been mixed.</span><sup style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.85em; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a class="xref-bibr" href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/24/2310.long#ref-3" id="xref-ref-3-1" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3</a>,<a class="xref-bibr" href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/24/2310.long#ref-4" id="xref-ref-4-1" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">The IFN-βs are generally considered safe, especially compared to newer agents for MS.</span><sup style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.85em; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a class="xref-bibr" href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/24/2310.long#ref-5" id="xref-ref-5-1" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"> However, few studies have systematically assessed their safety in real-world clinical practice (appendix e-1 at </span><a href="http://neurology.org/lookup/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000004037" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Neurology.org</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">).</span><sup style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.85em; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a class="xref-bibr" href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/24/2310.long#ref-5" id="xref-ref-5-2" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"> A meta-analysis of 9 clinical trials estimated that patients treated with IFN-β had a 2.8-fold increased risk of discontinuing drug because of an adverse event compared to the placebo group. The most common adverse events were flu-like symptoms, injection-site reactions, leukopenia, lymphopenia, and elevated liver enzymes.</span><sup style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.85em; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a class="xref-bibr" href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/24/2310.long#ref-6" id="xref-ref-6-1" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">6</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"> <b>However, because of their short duration and relatively small sample sizes, clinical trials cannot identify all potential adverse effects of a drug treatment or predict the safety of the drug in clinical practice. Furthermore, participants in clinical trials are highly selected in terms of comorbidities and concomitant medications and often differ substantially from patients who use the drug once it reaches the market. We identified signals of potential adverse events related to IFN-β treatment in a large population-based cohort of patients with RRMS.</b></span></i><br />
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This new study looked at patients with RRMS, registered at the UBC MS Clinic from 1995-2004, who were treated with interferons. 2,485 eligible patients were followed up until death, until they left BC, or until they stopped taking interferons. After compiling the data, the study showed that patients who had taken interferons, there was a 1.8 fold increase (almost <b>double risk</b> at 180%) of stroke or migraine. There was also a 1.3 fold increase in depression and hematologic abnormalities.<br />
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I realize this might be an obvious observation to many of my readers, but I feel like it will be overlooked by neurologists. All of these adverse affects are vascular. Stroke, migraine, blood issues --and yes, even depression---are related to blood flow, cerebral perfusion, coagulation and endothelial health. Interferon B changes platelet adhesion to the endothelium and appears to raise blood pressure.<br />
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Here's more on this from the paper:<br />
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">Our study is a comprehensive assessment of the potential risks for a broad range of adverse events related to IFN-β in the real-world clinical setting. Several of the adverse events that we observed to be associated with IFN-β exposure such as migraine, hematologic abnormalities, and depression are included in the known safety profile of the IFN-βs. Stroke, on the other hand, is not well recognized as a potential adverse event, being limited to a few case reports.</span><sup style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.85em; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a class="xref-bibr" href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/24/2310.long#ref-19" id="xref-ref-19-1" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">19</a>,<a class="xref-bibr" href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/24/2310.long#ref-20" id="xref-ref-20-1" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">20</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"> Nonetheless, it is biologically plausible that this event is associated with IFN-β because this drug may alter wall competence or enhance the major histocompatibility complex-1 molecule expression of platelets and other cells,</span><sup style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.85em; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a class="xref-bibr" href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/24/2310.long#ref-21" id="xref-ref-21-1" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">21</a>,<a class="xref-bibr" href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/24/2310.long#ref-22" id="xref-ref-22-1" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">22</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"> resulting in enhanced platelet adhesion to the endothelium.</span><sup style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.85em; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a class="xref-bibr" href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/24/2310.long#ref-22" id="xref-ref-22-2" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">22</a>,<a class="xref-bibr" href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/24/2310.long#ref-23" id="xref-ref-23-1" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">23</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"> </span></i><br />
<b><i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">Hypertension can also increase the risk of both migraine</span><sup style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.85em; line-height: 0; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a class="xref-bibr" href="http://www.neurology.org/content/88/24/2310.long#ref-35" id="xref-ref-35-1" style="border: 0px; color: #003366; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-style: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">35</a></sup><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"> and stroke, and we observed a higher risk for hypertension among current users of IFN-β, which might point to a common pathway.</span></i></b><br />
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<b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Other researchers are also studying the long term vascular side effects caused by interferons---</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">including <b>thrombotic microangiopathy</b>, which is a disease of endothelial injury resulting in thrombosis. These clots can cause stroke, chronic kidney disease and renal failure. </span></span><br />
<a href="https://oup.silverchair-cdn.com/oup/backfile/Content_public/Journal/ckj/PAP/10.1093_ckj_sfw143/1/sfw143.pdf?Expires=1499287167&Signature=afu5M8~RQVZWyKGKfbwm1Cms3eqQaLG6j5BRR5g01sorPNSsNdb2t1MmufSKw7wGEjeCKojWwaq1GWH6GHc39q6jI3PA3kGRlwYZByrGcQqKbwki8od5i0ivcMLeRWSnJkp7xpMgqvbVwXjMoSk45FGMZzoroUcTl08KLBy6yWZLufBaG1C4Krf~XBldWu1lzGkBo-svSgTVYnk-k19rLcggWlWYihEeAbyyYMqptfaJHd3Ll8kbBwgsrwXjn36gGgk9x0JA8h8LNn2f5NA-7qKCT17PFn-ED4gm4rKshDm~52EGHR-A~wgB2W7WnM9h0pPHLrmGkPO-gWcOUvGNTg__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIUCZBIA4LVPAVW3Q">link</a><br />
<a href="http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/medeff/reviews-examens/interferon-beta-eng.php">link</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Also being studied is how interferons affect blood clotting and cause hypertension</b></span><br />
<a href="https://www.specialtypharmacytimes.com/news/malignant-hypertension-in-patients-using-interferon-beta-1a-for-ms">link</a><br />
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There have been case studies where people with MS who were treated with interferon B had subsequent strokes.<br />
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16674611">link</a><br />
<a href="http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/823801">link</a><br />
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Previous studies have shown that <b>people with MS already have a two fold increase in risk of venous clots, independent of drug treatment.</b><br />
<a href="https://www.mstrust.org.uk/research/research-updates/update140210-lodged-blood-clots-VTE">link</a><br />
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Perhaps long-term use of Interferon β-- which further increases the risks of clotting, hypertension, stroke and endothelial dysfunction, while only reducing relapse risk by 1/3-- isn't the best approach for people with MS.<br />
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The vascular connection to MS is real. <br />
Endothelial health is essential.<br />
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Joan<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUrnS6-VHH-192Quu3O0PZPTdGRdNaV-NzmxSPedPMSqd-H5QsYyDLLsR-h5o_2-_BzRlDrETukXmySIb7DEO-ffGCSwTTZjjxVdUFhRw5fZVCi25IA7iu4QfTvpl13UkrSjEapR0gJz2O/s1600/shutterstock_306349790-2-1400x480.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUrnS6-VHH-192Quu3O0PZPTdGRdNaV-NzmxSPedPMSqd-H5QsYyDLLsR-h5o_2-_BzRlDrETukXmySIb7DEO-ffGCSwTTZjjxVdUFhRw5fZVCi25IA7iu4QfTvpl13UkrSjEapR0gJz2O/s640/shutterstock_306349790-2-1400x480.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Joanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09439558270245339942noreply@blogger.com1